India faces power cuts as heatwave drives electricity demand above 270GW

NEW DELHI: Parts of India are experiencing electricity outages as extreme heat has pushed power demand to a record level of more than 270 gigawatts, prompting the government to urge consumers to reduce usage.

An El Niño weather pattern is bringing higher-than-normal summer temperatures across the subcontinent in May. In Chennai, a major manufacturing and information technology centre in southern India, residents said nighttime outages have been lasting between 40 minutes and an hour.

One resident, R. Hari, described repeated interruptions in supply in the city’s southern areas and said the cuts were affecting people working remotely.

“South Chennai has seen frequent power cuts over the past two days, with outages at short intervals,” said R. Hari, a resident of the southern city, who complained that they made it difficult to work from home.

Grid-India, the national power regulator, said the country’s peak power deficit late on Thursday evening stood at about 2.57 gigawatts.

The power ministry said in a statement on Friday that the system was prepared to meet demand, but appealed to the public to conserve electricity because of the severe summer conditions.

“Although we are prepared to supply electricity as required, due to the intense summer, let us all try to use electricity wisely and judiciously,” the power ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Evening shortages and rising pressure

Shortages are a recurring problem during evening hours, when supply depends heavily on thermal and hydropower generation. During the day, part of the demand is met through solar power.

Disha Aggarwal, senior programme lead at the energy and environment think-tank CEEW, said the combination of record heat and rising electricity demand was putting India’s power system under strain, particularly as hotter nights become more common.

She said India needs to speed up the commissioning of battery storage so that excess solar power generated during the day can be used at night.

Heatwave warnings in several regions

Weather authorities have forecast heatwave to severe heatwave conditions from Friday until May 27 for the capital, New Delhi, as well as large parts of northern and eastern India.

In New Delhi and the neighbouring city of Noida, several people posted complaints on X about power outages during the night.

In the eastern coastal state of Odisha, residents and media reports said some users had protested against longer electricity cuts in certain areas during both daytime and nighttime hours.

The developments underline the pressure on India’s electricity network as prolonged heat raises cooling demand across multiple regions at once. The current strain is being intensified by unusually warm nights, which are adding to consumption even after sunset.