A day after a ministry probe body was supposed to submit a report on the November 1 countrywide power outage, State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid said yesterday that they had not yet found anything substantial.
Only on Wednesday, several members of the probe committee told the Dhaka Tribune that they had found some key issues that could have led to the blackout.
However, the junior minister, following a brief meeting with the committee at his office yesterday, said he had just got some primary information and not the official report, and would need more time and investigation to say anything conclusive.
It was not a formal pre-scheduled press conference, rather some reporters approached the state minister after he had emerged from the meeting. Usually a media-friendly person, the junior minister yesterday appeared uncomfortable and avoided most of the questions that had been shot at him.
“At 11:28am on November 1, because of a collapse of the national electricity grid, the entire country suffered a power outage. We formed a probe committee immediately. We have got some primary information from the committee,” Nasrul told reporters.
“The grid failure was not a consequence of any problem in the western or eastern grid or any of the power plants. We can say that it had happened because of an ‘internal grid failure’,” he said.
However, the state minister did not clarify what he had actually meant by the term “internal grid failure” and avoided most of questions that the reporters had asked in this regard.
He also confirmed that the blackout did not happen as a consequence of the tripping of the Bheramara HDVC sub-station, which brings in electricity from India.
He was then asked which tripped first – the Bheramara sub-station or the other power plants. He avoided that question as well.
Nasrul Hamid then briefed reporters on what the committee had told him, which appeared less like findings and more like regulation bureaucratic paperwork.
In short, he said the committee had still been analysing the data that they had got by visiting the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), the Bheramara sub-station and several other power plants from November 3-5.
The committee had also been trying to find out why the system frequency of the national grid declined on that day, he said.
The reporters yesterday kept on repeatedly asking him about how much time they would need to say anything conclusive, and the state minister, who said two days ago that he would not let the report get buried, kept on dodging them.
Finally, at one point, he whispered to the member secretary of the probe committee and told reporters that they had sought 10 working days’ extension.
When a reporter asked him whether an outcome should be expected at the end of that period, the minister said the extension was not yet official.
“There is no reason for not being able to tell which power station tripped first. I am sure they have the data. They are just playing hide and seek,” BD Rahmatullah, former director general of the government’s Power Cell, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Hinting at the Bheramara HVDC sub-station, he said: “As far as I am concerned, there could have been two problems – either there was a short circuit or the machinery installed there might be sub-standard.
“They are not making the probe report public just to save the corrupt officials...The investigation is being conducted against the PGCB [Power Grid Company of Bangladesh]. But the PGCB managing director himself is a member of the probe committee. This report will never see daylight,” said Rahmatullah.
When contacted, Abdul Hasib Chowdhury, associate professor of electrical and electronic engineering at Buet, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We understand that preparing a final report may take time. Dealing with technical data is a lengthy process. But by analysing primary data, they could have at least told which power station or sub-station tripped first...They could have included someone from the Buet for technical opinion.”
Apart from one, the members of the 8-strong probe committee are all government high officials including chiefs of important organisations of the power sector. They are all in their middle ages and have their own works to look after. Hence, they might not afford the time to conduct “further investigation,” sources said.
On Wednesday, several members of the probe committee told the Dhaka Tribune that tripping of the Bheramara sub-station, inefficiency of the national power grid maintenance staff and widespread mismanagement had all contributed to the nationwide blackout.
All the members of the probe committee were present when the state minister talked to reporters yesterday. Committee chief Ahmed Kaikaus, an additional secretary of the Power Ministry, and member secretary Mohammad Hossain, director general of the government’s Power Cell, also answered some queries.
Several officials of the PGCB, the authority that owns and runs the national power grid, said on November 1 that the Bheramara sub-station tripped first which caused some power stations in Ashuganj to fail. When that happened, the system frequency of the national grid declined, eventually leading to the blackout.
