NEW DELHI, Apr 5: The blackout call has a bearing on energy market as spot power price dropped to around 70 paisa per unit for supply during the 15 minutes block from 9PM to 9:15 PM on Sunday at Indian Energy Exchange.
The minimum spot power price was around Rs 2 per unit for supplies for Saturday as well as on Monday on the IEX.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged people to switch off the lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to display the country’s “collective resolve” to defeat coronavirus.
According to the data, the spot power price remained around Rs 2 per unit during the 15 minutes block supply from 8:45 PM to 9PM and 9:15 PM to 9:30. It shot up to Rs 2.5 per unit for 9:30 to 9:45 block and subsequently to Rs 2.96 per unit for 9:45PM to 10:00PM block. The average spot power price rate was Rs 2.38 per unit for supply on Sunday.
The overall power demand for supply on Sunday remained low at the IEX as purchase bids were 117.52 GWh against availability of 289.16 GWh. AS much as 111.39 GWh was sold for supply on Sunday on the IEX, indicating slump in the demand.
The spot power price touched a three-year low of 60 paise per unit for supplies on March 25 on the IEX due to low demand due to impact of the lockdown. However, the average spot power price is hovering around Rs 2.50 per unit at electricity exchanges.
Some of the industry experts said that call to switch off lights during these difficult times amid lockdown is uncalled for as this has a direct affect on sluggish demand of power across the country.
Besides, there were also fears that the nine-minute lockdown may result in failure of power grid. On Saturday, the power ministry had dismissed apprehensions of the grid failure during this blockout, saying such fears are misplaced.
However, some of the state utilities like Punjab and Maharashtra have issued advisories to the consumers for not switching off their appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, fans and even lights.
India’s peak power demand met has fallen by 25.82 per cent to 125.11 GW on April 4 from 168.66 GW on the same day last year, mainly due to the lockdown, showed the National Load Dispatch Centre Data.
In actual terms, the demand fell over 43 GW this Saturday compared to the same day a year ago. However, the data also showed that peak power demand met has stabilised around 125 GW after March 22.
The government has imposed 3-week lockdown to fight the pandemic from March 24. There was a call for Janata Curfew for March 22.
The demand was down mainly due to lower requirements from industry and state power distribution companies (discoms) across the country due to the lockdown.
The peak power demand met is the actual highest energy supply during the day across the country.
As per the data, the peak demand met was 163.72 GW on March 20, which came down to 161.74 GW on March 21.
This dropped sharply to 135.20 GW on March 22 due a call for ‘Janata Curfew’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The data also showed that the peak demand met improved slightly to 145.49 GW on March 23 but fell again to 135.93 GW on March 24 and subsequently to 127.96 GW on March 25.
The demand fell sharply to 120.31 GW on March 26 and to 115.23 GW on March 27, indicating continuous slump in demand.
However, there was little improvement on March 28 as the peak demand met rose slightly to 117.76 GW and to 120.18 GW the following day. The demand stood at 120.79GW on March 30; 123.08 GW on March 31; 123.30 GW on April 1, 125.81 GW on April 2 and 125.96 on April 3.
The peak power demand met was 168.7 GW in March and 176.81 GW in April last year. (PTI)
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