When the country's overall electricity demand dropped to 8,200MW during a national holiday when all the offices, industries and establishments are closed on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, three large power plants announced the start of operations of their three generation units.
These are — second unit (660MW) of Rampal power plant, second unit of (800MW) of Adani Power Plant in India and first unit (612MW) of S Alam's SS Power plant in Banskhali in Chittagong.
Normally, the demand for electricity in Bangladesh is 12,000MW at day peak time and goes up to 16,000MW during peak hours in the evening.
The National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) data shows both the demand and supply was 7,917MW at 12pm on Wednesday when there was no official load shedding.
“The demand may go up to 9,000MW”, said a top official of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
He said both relatively rain-driven calm weather and closure of offices, industries and commercial establishments led to this drastic fall in electricity demands in the country.
In such a relatively much lower demand situation, the three new units have added electricity to the national grid.
Of these, Adani Group has already announced the commercial operation date (COD) of second unit of its 1,600MW Godda power plant on June 26, exclusively set up in Jharkhand in India to supply electricity to Bangladesh.
“Today (Wednesday), the second unit of Rampal 1,320MW (660X2) was synchronised with national grid at 8:51am”, Shamim Hasan, director public relation of BPDB, said in a text message.
The Alam Group in a press release said its SS Power Plant will begin supplying electricity again today (Wednesday) at 2am on an experimental basis, despite the official inauguration being scheduled after Eid-ul-Azha.
Electricity equivalent to a maximum of 612MW as per demand will be supplied experimentally every day.
This decision has been made in response to the public's demand for electricity and with the aim of addressing the national power crisis.
The SS Power authority is optimistic that this timely initiative will effectively contribute to resolving the power shortage in the country.
With its experimental run of power supply, the SS Power Plant is anticipated to have a significant impact on stabilizing the national grid and alleviating the negative consequences of power outages.
Additionally, the plant is dedicated to meeting the energy requirements of the nation with utmost determination, aiming to provide uninterrupted power supply for the country's economic growth, industrial operations, and the everyday lives of its people.
Md Ebadat Hossain Bhuiyan, chief financial officer, SS Power Plant, said, although the official inauguration of the power plant is scheduled to be held after Eid-Ul-Azha, they have decided to resume supplying power to the national grid on an experimental basis, considering the national interest and the demand of the public.
“We are expecting that the power plant will commence full-fledged electricity supply to the people of the country next month, in accordance with our scheduled inauguration plan."
Due to the global crisis of the US dollar and energy, several power plants in Bangladesh have faced disruptions in production.
That is why load shedding has affected people's daily life. In this circumstance, electricity supply from one of the two units of the SS Power Plant to the national grid started on May 24.
After the successful completion of the experimental power supply process, the power plant was temporarily shut down on June 8 as planned, and the commissioning process started, the S Alam Group said.
