TN's energy consumption breaches 400 million units mark

CHENNAI: Amid the rise in mercury level in the state, the power consumption crossed the 400 million units mark for the first time.

On Thursday, the daily power consumption touched an all-time high of 400.881 million units, bettering the 399.219 MUs on the day before.

The energy consumption has been on rise for the past few days with 397.78 MUs on Tuesday as against the previous high of 388.8 MUs on April 29, 2022.

On Wednesday, the State's peak power demand also touched an all-time high of 18,667 MW, bettering the previous record of 18,252 MW on April 6 this year.

The electricity use is expected to grow as the Meteorological department has forecast above normal maximum temperatures over most of the districts for the next few days as well.

As large parts of the State reeling under sweltering heat conditions, the usage of the air conditioner is likely to go up in the coming days pushing the energy demand further, a senior Tangedco official said.

The power demand in the State is largely driven by the three phase supply to agriculture during the day time coinciding with the solar generation and industrial demand, the official said, adding that post-Covid the full fledged functioning of IT offices also increased the air conditioner load.

However, Chennai's power demand continued to remain less than its record level.

On Thursday, the city's power demand stood at 3,454 MW and energy consumption at 77.99 MUs. The city's all time high demand was 3763 MW on April 29 last year while the consumption was 81.383 MU on May 4 last year. "The power demand in the city rises during the peak summer period. We expect the state's power demand pattern will change from the morning peak to evening peak during that period," the official said, adding that already the evening peak has been going up and touched 17,990 MW on Thursday.