Misery as frequent power cuts coincide with heatwave

Frequent power outages have been reported in different parts of the country amid the ongoing heatwave, making life miserable, especially in remote areas.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) generated 15,304MW electricity on Friday (April 14), the highest in the country’s history. Even that could not improve the situation.

Shameem Hassan, director (public relations) of BPDB, said daily electricity demand has increased to a record 17,000-18,000MW due to the heatwave.

That is why there is a daily shortage of 2,000-3,000MW, disrupting load management, and the situation will not return to normal until the temperature drops, he said.

The meteorological department said the maximum temperature was recorded at 40.5 degrees Celsius in the capital on Sunday. Dhaka has been experiencing high temperature for the past one week while the heatwave is going on across the country.

BPDB said as the temperature is high in divisional cities, including Dhaka, it is trying to ensure uninterrupted power supply there through load-shedding in rural areas.

It also said there are some problems in transmission lines and load-shedding is happening several times during the day and night in different areas in Sylhet, Khulna, Chattogram, and Dhaka.

“People are using air-conditioners and fans non-stop amid the scorching summer heat. On Saturday, the Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) areas saw a record power demand of 1,865 MW.

“We are supplying power as per the demand, but still there is load-shedding in some places as Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) is having some problems in transmission lines in Rampura,” Bikash Dewan, managing director of DPDC, told The Business Post on Sunday.

However, PGCB spokesperson Badruddoza Sumon said there is no problem in the national grid. He said 100MW is usually supplied through the Rampura grid and Gulshan but it is now being supplied through Aftabnagar.

Load-shedding can be a power management problem on the part of the distribution companies, he said.

Power distribution in Bangladesh is divided into two zones – east and west. The Jamuna River has divided the zones. Consumers said load-shedding is worse in the east zone than in the west.

Shaheen Ahmed from Feni said there are frequent power outages that last for two to three hours.

A resident of Munshiganj named Pradeep Kumar Das said there was no electricity from morning till 1:30pm on Saturday.

As it is a neighbouring area of Dhaka, the temperature is high and people are suffering severely due to power cuts, Pradeep said.

Rezaul Karim from Sylhet and Fuad Hassan from Sirajganj said load-shedding lasts for three to four hours in the two areas.

Faria Akhter from Nagarkanda in Faridpur said they experience power outages during most hours in the daytime and nighttime, making it very hard to have sound sleep amid the high summer temperature.

Extensive load-shedding has also been reported in Mymensingh and Chattogram in the east zone. On the other hand, people in Dinajpur, Rangpur, and Joypurhat in the west zone said they experience load-shedding but that does not last long.

A year ago, northern districts used to suffer the most power outages as most power plants are located in the southern and eastern parts.

BPDB officials said as India’s Adani Group recently started electricity supply to Bangladesh, there is not much load-shedding in the northern region this year. However, electricity demand is very low in 16 northern districts due to a lack of industries.

BPDB Member (generation) SM Wazed Ali Sarder said there is some shortfall compared to demand while some big plants are facing generation problems.

“Hopefully, the problem will be solved in two to three days. If the temperature drops, the demand will become normal.”

According to BPDB, the country has 148 power plants with a combined generation capacity of 22,928MW. 12,694MW was generated during the day and 13,948MW at night from 114 plants on Saturday. Of this, 428MW was generated from diesel-based plants.

The government plans to shut down diesel-based plants after June as the electricity produced by them is costly.