The unprecedented summer has sent power demand soaring like never before. According to CESC the demand hit a record high of 2606MW on the night of 16th June- higher than of daytime in June 2022- which led to system breakdown in many pockets of the city. The gross power consumption is a result of sulky weather with a real feel of desert like 53°C. As South-west monsoon which brings rain is delayed due to cyclonic activities in Arabian Sea, hot and humid days have made the nights more uncomfortable. As city reels under sweltering heat attack and is desperate for a drop of rain the surging temperatures have pushed up AC use like never before causing a “breach of sanctioned load”. The power utility is right in its view that undeclared load is behind the prolonged power cuts. Out of 2.5 Lakhs ACs only a meager 54,000 have applied for load extension which means the rest have defaulted on application causing a trouble for those who even don’t have a AC at home. The additional load of 425MW is because of the 2.5 Lakh ACs with only a 1/3rd of new users having applied for load extension. The senior citizens and children are having a tough time wiping off incessant sweat during prolong power-cuts. Declaring the load is crucial as it helps CESC to augment the power supply and cater to the demand spike. Thrashing electricity workers is no way accepted as it’s the safety mechanism in place which gets triggered to protect system from overloading. The consumers who are responsible for an unlikely candle light dinner by running AC without declaration- causing switches to shut down- must be served a notice and asked to pay.
The arrival of monsoon will pave the departure way for power-cuts. While, the power utility has rightly already asked consumers to declare their load and use AC judiciously. Remember that the AC might cool inside the four walls but it’s the one of the reasons of global warming too. Comfort of AC comes at a price but others should not pay for that in form prolonged load shedding.
