India’s peak power demand hit a record high of 257.37 gigawatts (GW) on Monday late afternoon, surpassing the previous record of 256 GW last month.

According to the Grid controller, India’s peak power demand during the day hit 257.37 GW (15:42 hours). The evening peak demand stood at 241.24 GW.

The demand was met through advance resource adequacy planning, optimal scheduling and dispatch of available generation resources and close real-time coordination among NLDC, RLDCs, SLDCs and generating stations, supported by efficient utilisation of transmission corridors.

Coal-based thermal power plans accounted for 69 per cent of the generation on Monday to meet the demand followed by 28 per cent from renewable energy sources (RES).

The peak shortage on Monday stood at 601 megawatts (MW) and the energy met stood at 5.62 billion units (BU). However, generation outage was on the higher side at 32.54 GW.

Recently, India successfully met its all-time highest peak electricity demand of 256.1 GW on April 25, 2026 at 15:38 hrs without any shortage, while simultaneously maintaining electricity exports to neighbouring countries.

As per the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), India’s energy consumption touched 154 BUs in April 2026, up 4 per cent year-on-year. The month witnessed highly dynamic weather conditions, ranging from unseasonal rainfall to peak summer heat, which drove electricity demand to an all-time high of 256 GW.

Prior to this, the previous all-time high of 250 GW was recorded on May 30, 2024 and exceeds the peak of 245.4 GW observed on January 9, 2026 during the last financial year.

These achievements have been supported by record capacity addition of around 65 GW during FY26, strengthening the overall generation portfolio and enhancing system preparedness to handle high demand conditions. With this we can successfully meet the expected demand of around 270 GW this year.

Published on May 19, 2026