We lag behind in grid automation

Bangladesh lags behind in gridline automation, which creates problems in power transmission, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said.

This needs to be modernised as soon as possible, he told reporters during a press briefing at the Secretariat on Thursday.

Talking about Tuesday’s blackout, he said an imbalance between power generation and demand in the eastern zone caused the frequency to drop.

“This destabilised the gridline, leading to power outages in several regions. Gridline automation is needed to avoid such incidents in the future,” he said.

Nasrul also said, “On Tuesday, there were power generation shortages in the eastern region around 2pm while excess power was being produced in the western region.

“That is why 1,100MW of electricity was being supplied from the west to the east. At that time, two circuits of 230KV in Ashuganj and Sirajganj and another two in Ghorashal tripped, disconnecting power between the two regions. This led to the blackout.”

The state minister further said it was possible to restore power in the eastern region within seven hours due to the efforts of all concerned in the Power Division.

He said Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) formed a seven-member committee, which includes many experts, to find out the cause of the incident.

“Another committee was formed and both are now working. The investigators visited the Ghorashal grid substation on Wednesday. They said the grid was damaged, but no physical damage was observed in the power plants.”

Responding to a question, Nasrul said, “The sooner we move towards automation, the faster the problem will be mitigated. We took several initiatives.”

He added, “PGCB lags behind in many tasks. We have not made as much progress in transmission as we have in power generation. We have to work in a more modern way.” Habibur Rahman, secretary of the Power Division, and Mohammad Hossain, director general of Power Cell, were present at the press briefing.