Sweltering heat and prolonged power cuts are disrupting daily life across Bangladesh, with some rural areas facing 10-12 hours of load-shedding a day.
The outages are disrupting agriculture, small businesses, grocery shops, workshops and online work, while students and employees are struggling to work and study. Children, elderly people and the ill are suffering the most, particularly during nighttime outages.
The crisis is mainly being blamed on a shortage of fuel, particularly natural gas. Several gas-fired power plants cannot operate at full capacity due to inadequate gas supplies, leaving the country unable to fully utilize its installed generation capacity.
Rising electricity demand amid the heat has further widened the supply gap.
The shortfall was particularly severe between August 11 and 12. Load-shedding peaked at 3,592MW at midnight on August 11, when demand was 17,523MW against a supply of 13,931MW.
Demand peaked at 18,043MW at 9pm, with supply at 15,036MW and a deficit of 3,007MW. The shortfall remained above 3,000MW at 1am and 2am on August 12.
Although the situation improved somewhat in the morning, load-shedding rose again to 2,688MW at noon and 3,382MW at 3pm.
Heat widens power gap
Power supply is generally stable from December to March, when demand remains relatively low. But load-shedding typically begins as temperatures rise in April, increases in May and June, eases somewhat in July and rises again in August.
Demand that stood at just over 9,000MW during peak hours at the beginning of the year surged to 18,043MW on August 11.
Fuel shortage at the centre
Besides inadequate gas supplies, declining domestic gas production and pressure on coal and liquid fuel supplies and costs have worsened the crisis.
Most gas-fired plants are operating below capacity. Officials expect generation to increase once the Maheshkhali terminal resumes normal gas supplies.
Rural residents bear brunt
Rural areas are facing the longest outages, with electricity unavailable for up to 10-12 hours in many places.
The crisis is also affecting agriculture, small businesses, grocery shops, workshops and online-based work. Problems with mobile networks and internet services in some areas are creating additional difficulties for students and employees.
Nighttime outages are also raising security concerns. Frustrated residents have attacked rural electricity facilities in some areas.
Electricity authorities seek security
The Bangladesh Palli Bidyut Association on Wednesday sought enhanced security from the inspector general of police (IGP) for grids, substations and offices following reports of attacks, vandalism and arson.
In a letter to the IGP, the association said around 80 rural electricity cooperatives provide power to nearly 40 million customers across the country, with a significant share of the country’s electricity distributed through them.
However, as power generation continues to fall short of demand, the cooperatives are being forced to impose prolonged load-shedding.
Load-shedding expected to ease
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit said the shortage was caused by disruptions to gas-fired generation and said the situation would improve somewhat from Wednesday evening.
However, he said no specific timeline could be given for fully resolving the fuel crisis.
PGCB data showed load-shedding at 1,319MW at 6pm on August 12, down from 2,499MW at the same time the previous day.
Officials said the evening improvement was partly because oil-fired plants were brought online during peak hours, while outages increase again after those plants are shut down at night.
‘We operate with whatever allocation we receive’
West Zone Power distribution Company Executive Director Mohammad Rokonuzzaman said the company serves around 1.8 million customers in 21 district towns and 22 upazila towns.
“Demand is around 700MW. Load-shedding was around 100MW. Yesterday (Tuesday), it was around 140-150MW,” he said.
He said the company was managing the situation with three to four hours of daily load-shedding and had sought government security amid growing public anger.
Energy expert BD Rahmat Ullah said the fuel crisis could not be resolved immediately and warned that the power shortage would continue until the fuel shortage eases.
He recommended greater investment in renewable energy, particularly rooftop solar, to prevent similar crises in the future.
