Urging everyone to remain patient as the government interrupts the electricity supply to balance the demand and supply, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said the loadshedding situation will not last long and will be resolved within one month.
Opposition lawmakers in parliament on Tuesday expressed their apprehension that there might be public outrage due to the way loadshedding is increasing, reports UNB.
In response, Nasrul Hamid said he had already expressed his regret and requested everyone to have patience for another couple of weeks.
“Covid dealt us a lot of damage. The prices of goods have increased.”
Referring to the power crisis, the state minister said at present country could provide 20,000-22,000MW of electricity at any moment.
“It needs fuel. The whole world was affected by Covid for two-three years. Every country is affected. Then came the Russia-Ukraine war. All over the world the price of everything went up. Gas and oil were not available.”
He said the government was trying hard to provide uninterrupted power and energy.
“There are big challenges and there will be. Our biggest challenge is capacity. How much fuel we can save while providing electricity… It is impossible to predict when and what will happen to the world market, whether we will get fuel continuously or not,” he added.
“Currently we can generate 12,000-12,500MW of electricity during the day. We can generate 14,000-15,000MW of electricity in the evening during peak hours.”
The minister said 2,500MW of loadshedding was currently underway.
Adding some context for the current crisis, Nasrul said: "We could not open LCs for coal on time. With the global system and economic system in mind, we could not import coal in time."
