

The country’s peak power demand reduced to 259.8 GW on May 23, 2026, with the peak shifting 15 minutes earlier to 3:22pm.
The source-wise mix is as follows:
1. Renewable Energy (RE) including hydro contributed 33 per cent to the peak demand, while overall RE generation rose by 68 MU, with wind and hydro generation aiding the rise.
2. Power shortage during daytime fell to zero, whereas nighttime shortage rose to 1.43 GW as the systemic limit of meeting heightened nighttime continues.
3. The arrival of peak 15 minutes earlier at 3:22pm provides greater share of solar energy to meet the same and cushions the system. Until now, the peak has usually been 3 hours after the peak penetration of solar capacity on a given day.
4. Haryana continued to report the highest energy shortage with 3.94 MU, with Maharashtra, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Bihar also reporting shortages,
5. On May 23, India imported a 41.7 MU of power from Bhutan and Nepal’s hydro generation while exporting a net 24.4 MU of power to Bangladesh, reversing the trend of net export of power.
6. The overall capacity outage in coal and nuclear generation rose by 1.92 GW, with a total of 38.14 GW of capacity reporting outage.
7. Average usage of coal and gas based thermal power fell by 4.1 GW over the day, highlighting the reduction in overall power demand during the day.