Overview
- Grid India reported a national daytime peak near 270–271 gigawatts during the late‑May heat spell, a level that stressed the system’s ability to match demand.
- Night‑time demand has produced shortfalls around 2.5–2.6 GW when solar falls away and coal and other thermal plants must shoulder the load.
- The Central Electricity Authority logged about 23 GW of forced outages at thermal and nuclear units that worsened evening gaps and increased strain on operators.
- Local distribution faults, overloaded feeders and transformer failures have caused prolonged outages and protests in districts of Uttar Pradesh, prompting show‑cause notices and political complaints.
- Central and state authorities have asked consumers to conserve power and Uttar Pradesh officials ordered feeder‑level accountability, expanded helplines, smart‑meter billing fixes and plans to add storage and new capacity by 2029.