Ludhiana, April 25 -- Ludhiana A widening gap of up to 2,000 MW between demand and supply is already straining Ludhiana's power system ahead of peak summer, triggering outages and raising concerns of prolonged cuts in rural and suburban areas.

Officials said average daily consumption is around 6,700 MW, rising to nearly 9,200 MW during peak hours. The situation worsens in the early morning when power supply to agricultural feeders is released for running tubewell pumps between 4 am and 8 am, pushing demand beyond 10,000 MW and creating a significant shortfall.

While demand fluctuates with weather and consumption patterns, outages are most frequent during peak windows when domestic, commercial and agricultural loads overlap.

To manage t...