Patiala, July 5 -- Despite normal daytime temperatures amid monsoon, Punjab's power demand soared to an all-time high on Friday, possibly fuelled by the prevailing high humidity and heavy tubewell usage for paddy transplantation.

Traditionally, Punjab witnesses maximum power demand in June when heatwave conditions, coupled with usage of 14.5 lakh irrigation tubewells in the state for paddy transplantation, shoots up.

However, on Friday, the state's maximum power consumption touched 16, 983 MW, surpassing the previous all-time high of 16,754 MW on June 28 this year.

PSPCL officials said to meet the demand, they were drawing around 10, 400 MW from the northern grid while the PSPCL's own generation was around 6,371 MW.

As per the country...