India power shortage eases: Oct 26 shortage 1.29 MU as peak demand falls to 227.9 GW

Lower demand is doing most of the work

These daily figures from Grid-India show how much electricity India's grid supplied and how much demand went unmet. Energy met is the electricity actually delivered to consumers, measured in million units (MU). It was 4,858 MU on Oct 26. That is roughly 11% below the 5,473 MU on Oct 14 and the 5,533 MU on Oct 5. Maximum demand met, the day's highest load measured in gigawatts (GW), was 227.9 GW. It was 256.5 GW on Oct 14 and about 260.7 GW on Oct 5 and Oct 8.

The shortage has stayed small for more than a week

Energy shortage is the demand that the grid could not serve.

• All-India shortage on Oct 26: 1.29 MU. The Northern Region accounted for 1.26 MU of it.
• It was 31.3 MU on Oct 14 and 21.2 MU on Oct 13.
• The shortage was under 0.5 MU on every day from Oct 18 to Oct 25.

Supply is still tight as hydro power keeps falling

Hydro generation was 321.5 MU on Oct 26, against 497 MU on Oct 14. That is a drop of about a third. Hydro output usually weakens after the monsoon, but this year it started from weak reservoirs. Total generation outages, meaning plant capacity out of service, were 38.4 GW. That is in line with the past two weeks.

Coal use has come down from its mid-October high

Coal generation was 3,759 MU, about 10% below its Oct 14 high of 4,168 MU. Burning less coal eases the drain on power plant stockpiles. The concern about coal stocks is on hold rather than solved, at least until demand climbs again. Renewables (wind, solar, biomass and others) produced 860 MU, including 623 MU of solar.