Electricity demand in Kolkata may fall 3.6% during this year’s Durga Puja despite an increase in the number of puja committees, while demand across West Bengal could rise by up to 15%, according to the state government and the city’s power distributor CESC.
CESC said at a press conference on Monday that the peak demand in its service area is expected on Tritiya, when consumption could reach 2,050 megawatts. That would be below the peak of 2,126 megawatts recorded during last year’s Puja, a decline of 3.6%.
West Bengal Power Minister Gargi Das Ghosh attributed the expected reduction in Kolkata’s demand to the timing of the festival. Durga Puja is taking place in the middle of October this year, and the state government expects weather conditions to reduce the use of electricity compared with last year.
The projected decline in Kolkata comes even as the number of pujas is expected to increase. More than 5,200 pujas were held in the CESC service area in 2025. Across areas supplied by the state electricity board, the number of pujas was around 57,000 last year and could cross 60,000 this year, Das Ghosh said.
The larger state-board service area is expected to see a different demand pattern from Kolkata. Shantanu Basu, principal secretary of the state power department, said total demand in the area could rise 15% from approximately 10,000 megawatts last year to around 11,500 megawatts this year. The state will not meet all of that requirement through its own generation, with power expected to be procured from outside sources.
The power department has estimated that approximately 4,440 megawatts will have to be purchased from outside during the Puja season. The figures indicate that supply planning will need to account for sharply different conditions across the state: a possible weather-linked reduction in the CESC area alongside higher demand and more festival installations in state-board territories.
Das Ghosh said preparations were being made to meet the expected demand. The government has also decided that Puja committees will not have to pay electricity charges this year. Last year, an 80% waiver resulted in an estimated revenue loss of Rs 28 crore. The loss is expected to rise to between Rs 33 crore and Rs 34 crore this year as the number of pujas increases.
The next operational milestone will be the implementation of the electricity supply and procurement arrangements during the Puja period, when the authorities will have to manage demand across both CESC-served Kolkata and the wider state-board network.
