DISCOMs health and sustainability of prevailing cross-subsidy a more pressing issue in current scenario of sustained muted growth in commercial and industrial demand
New Delhi, August 20: A new report by TERI has found that demand for electricity in India would be lower by 7% – 17% by 2025 due to covid-19, with all 10 of India’s largest power-consuming states to witness a demand drop between 5% – 15%.
Union power minister RK Singh, however, said he wasn’t worried about the impact of the lockdown and expected demand to pick up. Talking at the launch of the report titled ‘Bending the Curve: 2025 Forecasts for Electricity Demand by Sector and State in the Light of the COVID Epidemic’, he said,
“Despite the lockdown, we have rebounded and will continue to do so. I don’t see electricity demand suffering in the long term. It will grow at a slower pace, but it will be back.”
The report also suggested the needs for policy-makers, developers, distribution companies, and investors to be better prepared for the future if the decline in demand growth persisted, stating, “In particular, the financial health of DISCOMs and the sustainability of the prevailing cross-subsidy may be even more pressing issues in a mid-term scenario of sustained muted growth in commercial and industrial demand.”
Not ruling out a downward revision in the future, the study concluded that, “More severe scenarios, entailing a downward revision in demand of greater than 15% relative to trend, cannot be excluded, and are potentially becoming likelier.”
