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NEW DELHI: India’s electricity demand grew 7.5% in the first 18 days of February with early onset of summer in the South and West, offering some relief to the stressed thermal power sector which can now operate at higher capacities.Currently, thermal power projects are operating at 58% capacity, a senior government official said. Power demand had grown 3.7% in January, turning around after five months of decline.Demand for electricity stood at 1,05,289 megawatt (mw) in January against 1,01,570 mw in December 2019. It was also 3.5% higher than the 1,01,713 mw in January 2019, data available with the Central Electricity Authority showed.In February so far, demand was 15–20 gigawatt (gw) higher than peak-hour demand for the same period last year.Thermal and large hydro projects generated 7.3% more electricity during February 1-18 than the same period last year, while renewable power plants produced about 5.3% more electricity. Peak-hour power requirement has touched 176.6 gw in the current month so far, against 160 gw in the corresponding period a year ago.Power demand for the April-January period of the current financial year was 10.7% higher than in the same period last fiscal year.The monthly data of power requirement for January, however, showed that demand contracted between December and January in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the two most industrialised states in the country, while it was higher in most other states.Electricity demand is seen as an important indicator of economic health, although the Economic Survey tabled on January 31 had suggested that it was not.“Given that these indicators do not exhibit a stable relationship with GDP growth even before 2011, they are poorly equipped to diagnose mis-estimation post 2011,” it had said.India’s power demand grew just 1.1% in 2019.In December, the country’s power demand fell 0.5% from the year-ago period, a fifth straight month of decline, compared with a 4.3% fall in November. The fall was the most in October, at 13%, led by a sharp reduction in demand from Gujarat and Maharashtra.