India’s power regulator on Monday appointed a Single Member Bench to look into aspects relating to preparedness of power managers and other stakeholders to meet the challenges arising on account of a sudden surge in power demand.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has initiated a suo-motu proceedings on the issue.

In October, India’s projected peak power demand is 230 Giga Watt (GW) and factoring in the Inter-State Transmission System losses, the peak power demand is expected to be 232.2 GW. There is an additional requirement of generation resources of about 12.60 GW with a reserve requirement of 3% to meet contingency, it said.

“The projected requirement of generation is significantly higher than the annual growth of the electricity demand and the addition of generation capacity. The projected requirement of thermal generation during October, 2024 needs proper operational planning and adequacy of resources in terms of Regulation 31(4) of the Grid Code,” CERC said.

The steep rise in electricity demand without adequate generation sources may put the power system operation at risk. It is the statutory responsibility of the Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) and State Load Despatch Centres (SLDCs) to carry out the operational planning for the increase in demand due to season variations, it said.

CERC directed the National Load Despatch Centre, RLDCs and State Load Despatch Centres to submit report by October 16, regarding implementation of measures as per the provisions of the Grid-code, a load-generation scenario in their respective control areas, and any other measures taken to address the deficit of power supply during October.

CERC said its member Ramesh Babu V. will in detail study the responses and conduct the proceedings.

He would submit a report and after consideration, CERC said it shall issue appropriate directions.