PANDEMIC WITH COVID19 AND CORRESPONDING IMPACT IN INDIAN POWER SECTOR In these troubling times of ‘social distancing’ and ‘working from home’, the centrality of electricity in powering our current and future societies is more evident than ever before. However, the power sector also is not immune to the adverse effects of the pandemic. The long-term impact of the current situation would only become apparent with time. Nevertheless, some early impacts of COVID-19 on Indian power sector are already becoming evident. An effort is being made to assess the impacts to create a basis for future discussion. This study may also help to reduce the adverse effects and better preparing the sector to take curative actions if the same situation occurs in future.
T
he second world war is a matter of past where the man made crisis caused a death toll of 8090 million people putting the existence of the world in question, but the recent havocs like the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the coronavirus pandemic is a world-shattering phenomenon which has started now and we can only imagine today its far-ranging consequences. The Covid-19 coronavirus was first identified in China’s Hubei province in December 2019 and has since become a global health threat, impacting 209 countries and triggering the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare it a global pandemic. The first case of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in India was reported on 30 January 2020, originating from China. As of 9th April 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have confirmed a total of 5,865 cases, 478 recoveries and 169 deaths in the country. It can be well assumed that the number of infections could be much higher as India's testing rates are among the lowest in the world. With the insufficient health care support, the only way to prevent the spread of such contagious disease is social distancing which the Prime minister of India had reiterated umpteen times and also declared total lock down of the country for three weeks from 25th March 2020 to prevent spread of the deadly disease. However, depending on the actual situation, he also mentioned of the possibility of the lock down period.
6 | CCAI Monthly Newsletter March 2020
The COVID-19 lockdown has led to shut down of all but essential commercial activities across the country. Approximately 1.35 billion citizens are obliged to remain within the confines of their homes and, in many cases, only allowed to work from home. Consequently, the electricity demand from industrial and, commercial customers has reduced significantly while the residential demand is expected to have increased. According to the Power System Operation Corporation of India (POSOCO), The energy met on March 16th, 2020 – which can be considered as a business-as-usual scenario – was 3494 MU as compared to 3113 MU on March 23rd, 2020 a day of voluntary curfew. It further reduced to a range between 2600-2800 MU between March 25th to March 31st, 2020. This trend is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Daily energy met (MU) Figure 1: Daily energy met (MU)
In India, distribution utilities have a lower tariff for domestic and agricultural consumers, sometimes the a In India, distribution utilities have a lower tariff for dois less than the average cost of supply as compared to that for commercial and industrial consumers.
mestic and agricultural consumers, sometimes the
Table 1 provides the electricity tariff rates in Delhi for selected consumer categories to highlight these average tariff is less than the average cost of supply Thus, for several distribution companies, the lower tariff‐paying consumers are cross‐subsidized by com as compared to that for commercial and industrial industrial consumers.
consumers.
Category
Fixed Charge Energy (₹ /KVA/Month) (₹ /KWh)
Industrial
250
7.75
Single point delivery supply for Group Housing Societies 150
4.50
Charge
