India’s electricity demand touched a record high in April as its northern states reeled under the hottest pre-summer months in decades, with a surge in the use of air conditioning triggering the worst power crisis in more than six years. Power demand grew 13.2% to 135.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), as the electricity requirement in the north grew between 16% and 75%, a Reuters analysis of government data showed. Electricity use is expected to grow as India’s weather office has forecast above normal maximum temperatures over most parts of the west central, northwest, north and northeast. India and neighbouring Pakistan have been suffering from extreme heat this year and more than a billion people are at risk from the heat, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an intense summer to climate change. The unprecedented electricity use resulted in widespread power cuts […]