25th of April records the peak historical demand for electricity in Sri Lanka

The highest demand for electricity in the history recorded last Sunday 25th April. It is nearly 2452.9 Megawatts. The electricity board produced about 42.35 Gigawatt hours to cater that demand. The closest record for the highest demand was also witnessed on the 5th of April. It is 2393.4 Megawatts. That was the second highest demand in the history.
The main reason for this increased demand for electricity is the hot weather experiencing in the island. These days there is a high demand for air conditioning and for electrical fans especially in the night time other than for the lighting. That’s why the demand had increased this much.” emphasized Mr. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya the minister of power and renewable energy.
Mr. Siyambalapitiya further said,
“The demand for electricity in the month of January had increased by 9.91% in 2016, relative to January 2015. Similarly in the month of February 2016 it had gone up by 13.5% compared to February 2015. Consecutively, in the month of March the increase was 9.88%. When comparing with historical data, it can be observed that there is a rapid increase in the demand during the above three months of 2016 compared to the year 2015.
When comparing the temperature in the country, during the month of February 2016, it has gone up by one degree of centigrade compared to the temperature of the month of February 2015. In the month of March and April it had gone up by two degrees of centigrade in 2016 compared to the temperature in 2015.
On the other hand, the annual rainfall had decreased by 51 mm compared to February 2016 figures compared to 2015. In the month of March the rainfall had dropped by 233 mm in 2016 compared to 2015. In April it had decreased by 171 mm in 2016 compared to the same month in 2015. In average the rainfall is about 692 mm during these three months. But in 2016, it was 237 mm. There is a decrease of 455 mm, a 65% decrease.
In our country electricity mainly generated from Hydro power. Therefore the rainfall directly affects electricity generation in Sri Lanka. During these three months the rainfall had decreased by 65% and temperature had gone up. With these conditions, when the demand for electricity goes up by 11% we are in a very challenging situation to provide continually the required demand.” he said.