Record power generated amid severe heat wave

NEW DELHI (AFP) — India’s power producers have set a record for electricity generation as swathes of the world’s most populous nation swelters in an intense heatwave, the ministry of power said.

Thursday was the “fourth consecutive day when the peak power demand (solar hours) reached a new all-time high,” the ministry said in a statement.

It said that at 3:45 p. m. on Thursday, when temperatures sizzled at 45.3C in the capital New Delhi, the country’s peak power demand of 270.82 gigawatts (GW) was “successfully met.”

“This represents a new high in peak demand met,” the ministry said, surpassing Wednesday’s high of 265.44 GW.

“The surge in demand appears to be linked to the greater usage of cooling appliances,” the ministry added, in a statement issued late Thursday on social media.

Thermal power — largely coal — accounted for 62 percent of generation, with solar making up 22 percent, wind and hydropower taking up five percent each, and the rest coming from other sources.

India, the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2070, but remains heavily reliant on coal.

Despte the power production, followers of the ministry’s X account reported that there had been cuts in their districts.

The intense heat can overload old wiring and transformers, and cause localized blackouts.

The South Asian country of 1.4 billion people is no stranger to scorching summers, with routine heatwaves between April and June.

Years of scientific research has found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

The India Meteorological Department said the highest maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 47.6C in the city of Banda in Uttar Pradesh state, 450 kilometers southeast of New Delhi, moderately cooler than the 48.2C earlier in the week.