The committee, formed by the Power Ministry to look into the November 1 countrywide power outage, yesterday finished investigation by visiting the Ghorashal power plant at Narshingdi.
The eight-member probe body, comprising one former and seven current government high officials, said they would now analyse the data they had collected and submit a report within a few days.
On November 6 – a day after the first deadline expired – instead of submitting a report, the committee placed some “primary information” about the blackout to State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid and sought a 10-day extension.
Upon receiving the primary information, the junior power minister said the committee had not found “anything substantial,” although only a day before that several members of the body told reporters about some of key findings.
Reportedly, the committee is still analysing the data that they have collected by visiting the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) in the capital’s Aftabnagar, the Bheramara sub-station and the Ashuganj, Haripur and Ghorashal power plants.
“We are yet to find out any reason behind the blackout. We have just finished the investigation by visiting the Ghorashal Power Plant. We will sit with all the data tomorrow [today] and after analysing them we will submit the report within two or three days,” Mohammad Hossain, director general of the government’s Power Cell and
member secretary of the investigation committee, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
On the day of the blackout, officials of the PGCB, the authority that owns and runs the national power grid, said the Bheramara sub-station tripped first which caused some power stations in Ashuganj to fail.
“We had three important issues in our minds when we visited the Ghorashal plant,” Md Khizir Khan, former chairman of PDB and a member of probe committee, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“We have collected equipment data from the power plant, tried to find out if there was any problem in reviving the plants after the blackout and whether the blackout had damaged any equipment. We however have found no such damage.
“We will recommend that the government upgrades the national grid to avoid similar disasters in the future,” he said.