Harsh Summer Intensifies: Punjab power demand surges by 1,000 MW daily, outages reported across many areas
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 21,2026
Power demand in Punjab is increasing as heat wave tightens its grip and touched a record of 14238 MW on Wednesday for the month of May as per NRLDC report.
The electricity demand rise has plunged several rural and suburban pockets and Kandi areas into prolonged power outages, exposing the mounting strain on the state’s power infrastructure. The power demand disrupted water supply in some areas and voltage fluctuations kept consumers busy. Officially the cuts were around 23 LU.
On Thursday morning the maximum power demand again touched -13871MW for the second consecutive day.
The power demand in Punjab on Wednesday touched 14238 MW while maximum power demand of May last year was 14077 MW on 21st. May. The power supply in the state on Wednesday was 2770 lakh units comprising 965 LU thermal, 118 LU hydel, and 1602 LU from grid.
Today morning for the second consecutive day ,amidst the rise in day temperature . The maximum demand today afternoon at around 10 AM was 13828 MW. The state was drawing over 9772 MW against a schedule of 10471 MW from the northern grid while its own gross generation was4051 MW.
The power demand in Punjab has been increasing by 1000 MW each day for the last few days after the first fortnight of May saw low demand due to good weather.
Today two units at Ropar, three at Lehra Mohabbat and two units at Goindwal are operating at half load . One Ropar unit is down due to annual maintenance and is likely to come on 26th May. The own thermal generation was 1560 MW, private thermal generation was around 2980 MW and solar power within the state was 300 MW.
The coal stock at all the three state run thermal plants are , Lehra Mohabbat 25 days, Ropar 35 days, Goindwal 24 days,. The private thermal plants , Rajpura has 26 days stock and Talwandi Sabo 20 days.
This year the maximum power demand of Punjab is likely to touch 18000 MW during paddy season. The drawl from the northern grid is 10500 MW and states own supply under ideal conditions will be 6500 MW. Besides solar power during day time may be available. Theoretically everything is fine on papers but no one knows the force majeure conditions at that time.
The total installed thermal capacity in the state sector is 2300 MW, Total Hydro capacity -1015 MW.\,Private sector thermal plants 3380 MW, Solar 450 MW, Total gross installed capacity 14896 MW. The actual generation is always less than installed capacity.
