The country is experiencing frequent load-shedding because of a prevailing gas shortage and disruption in generation at the country’s largest power plant.
Most places in the country are having to deal with one hour or longer power-cuts and things are made worse by the summer heat. The students taking the ongoing HSC and equivalent examinations are the worst sufferers.
The current estimated peak demand is 7800MW but average supply is 7300MW.
However, the Power Development Board (PDB) has claimed that whatever is happening in the country is just forced load-shedding.
According to officials, the extent of load-shedding has gone up to about 500MW from last week’s less than 200MW.
On March 16, generation at the 412MW gas-fired Haripur Combined-Cylce Power Plant in Narayanganj was stopped due to technical glitches. State-owned Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) runs that plant.
“We are not in a position to give an idea about when the plant can resume operation,” said EGCB Managing Director Mostafa Kamal.
An official of the government’s Power Division said: “The current level of production is not enough. In fact, people are not getting enough power and are therefore facing load-shedding.”
PDB Chairman Md Shahinul Islam Khan claimed that they are generating enough power to meed the demand but they are having to do some load-shedding because of problems in distribution lines or sub-stations.
Many places in Dhaka including Jatrabari, Gulistan, Khilgaon, Azimpur, Rampura, Banasri, Hatirpul, Panthapath, Dhanmondi, Syamoli, Mohammadpur, Kalyanpur and Mirpur are experiencing load-shedding four times a day.
Md Nazrul Hasan, managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company, said if the distribution lines go out of order, power supply had to be stalled for sometime. He also said: “Because of the ongoing construction of the Mogbazar-Mouchak flyover, distribution lines got damaged, causing load-shedding.”
The forced shut down of power plants for maintenance works would leave 1,819MW of capacity unused in the peak season. Another 185MW cannot be tapped due to gas shortages.
