Let’s lumber. New Delhi: India’s electricity demand continues to hit new records as the use of cooling equipment has increased sharply due to the increasing heat. Amid the scorching heat, power producers have produced electricity at record levels, meeting the country’s highest demand ever.

India’s energy ministry said that the country’s peak electricity demand set a new all-time high for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday. According to a statement issued by the ministry, India’s peak power demand reached 270.82 GW at 3:45 pm on Thursday, which has been successfully supplied.

At that time, the temperature in the capital New Delhi was 45.3 degrees Celsius. The ministry described this level as the highest peak power demand in India’s history. Earlier, the record of 265.44 GW was set on Wednesday, which was surpassed in a single day.

The Ministry of Energy has said that the demand for electricity has increased unusually high due to the increase in the use of air conditioners, coolers and other cooling equipment due to the increasing temperature. This is the main reason for the increase in demand in the details released by the ministry through social media.

India’s total electricity generation is still dominated by thermal power, especially coal-based generation. Currently, 62 percent of the country’s total electricity generation is from coal-based thermal power. Solar power accounts for 22 per cent of the production, wind and hydropower 5 per cent and the rest from other sources.

India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, but remains heavily dependent on coal for energy security. Many users on social network X have complained that their areas are still experiencing power cuts, amid government claims that electricity is being produced at record levels. Due to the extreme heat, there is a high pressure on old electric wires and transformers, increasing the risk of blackouts at the local level.

While intense heat is considered normal in South Asia’s 1.40 billion population from April to June, both intensity and duration of heat have increased in recent years. Scientific research has concluded that due to climate change, heat waves are becoming longer, more frequent and dangerous.

According to the India Meteorological Department, Banda town in Uttar Pradesh recorded a maximum temperature of 47.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday. The conditions are still extremely hot, although it was slightly below the 48.2 degrees Celsius that reached the same region earlier this week, the department said.

The highest temperature ever recorded officially in India was 51 °C in Phalodi, Rajasthan, recorded in 2016. Meanwhile, international air quality monitoring platform AQI said in a report released in April that all 50 of the hottest cities in the world were in India. The daily heat index, which is based on a range of indicators including temperature, solar radiation, wind conditions, rainfall and humidity, showed that Indian cities are vulnerable to extreme heat.