Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged all Union Cabinet Ministers to ensure that their respective ministries and departments take necessary steps to mitigate the impact of the prevailing heatwave conditions across the country.
Addressing a media briefing after the cabinet meeting, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Prime Minister stressed the need for a “whole-of-nation” approach to deal with the extreme heat situation.
A day earlier, in a series of posts on X, Modi said children, the elderly and those working outdoors are especially vulnerable to extreme heat. He cautioned people against ignoring signs of heat exhaustion, warning that it can quickly turn dangerous and may even lead to heatstroke.
Rapidly urbanising cities
India’s rapidly urbanising cities are trapping more heat than ever before. Rising humidity, hotter nights and exploding air-conditioner usage are sharply driving electricity consumption and pushing the country’s peak power demand to a record 270.8 GW this summer.
Compound hot-humid days across India surged more than 20% in less than a decade — from 14,086 during 2015-2019 to 16,970 during 2020-2024 — significantly increasing “feels-like” temperatures and forcing households to depend on cooling appliances for longer hours. At the same time, Urban Heat Island (UHI) intensity across Indian cities now ranges between 2°C and 10°C, sharply worsening urban heat stress.
Emerging cooling crisis
The emerging cooling crisis is rapidly reshaping India’s electricity demand pattern, with residential cooling demand now overtaking industrial power demand growth in several states. Air-conditioner penetration could reach nearly 40% of Indian households by 2030, sharply increasing electricity demand during summers.
An analysis titled From Heatwave to Grid Wave: India’s 270-GW Moment and the Urban Heat Crisis Behind It by Climate Trends warned that Indian cities are increasingly turning into “giant heat traps” because of rapid urbanisation, concrete expansion and shrinking green cover, fundamentally altering the country’s power consumption behaviour. The report said electricity demand is now increasingly shaped not only by rising temperatures but also by humidity and elevated nighttime heat.
India’s average nighttime temperature increased by around 0.21°C per decade between 2010 and 2024, with 35 out of 36 states and Union Territories recording warming trends. Rising night temperatures are preventing buildings from cooling naturally after sunset and extending air-conditioner and cooling demand well past midnight.
“Rising night temperatures are emerging as silent killers during heatwaves as they are extending cooling demand well past midnight,” the report noted. The report highlighted that humidity is emerging as a major hidden driver of electricity demand, especially in coastal and densely populated cities, where high moisture levels sharply increase discomfort and cooling requirements even when temperatures are relatively lower.
Non-industrial states are increasingly emerging among India’s largest electricity consumers because of cooling-driven residential demand. On the record peak day, Uttar Pradesh recorded electricity demand of 29 GW, Maharashtra 31 GW, Gujarat 25.9 GW, Tamil Nadu 19.5 GW and Rajasthan 15.8 GW. Together, the top demand-driving states accounted for nearly 60% of India’s total electricity demand during the peak day.
States recording the highest number of compound hot-humid days over the last decade included Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal — many of which are also among India’s fastest-growing electricity demand centres.
The report warned that rising urban heat could increasingly stress transformers, feeders and local distribution infrastructure during summers unless cities rapidly adopt heat mitigation measures.
It recommended large-scale deployment of cool roofs, rooftop solar systems, reflective surfaces, decentralised storage systems, blue-green infrastructure and energy-efficient cooling technologies as critical long-term solutions to manage India’s emerging “grid wave”.
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