The generation and supply gap is widening in power production, leading to load-shedding of over 1,500MW across the country on Monday.
The official data of state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) shows that the country had an actual shortage of about 1,401MW electricity against a demand of 16,000MW on Sunday as the total power generation reached 14,599MW during peak evening hours.
Similarly, BPDB data shows that the country is expected to generate 15,160MW against a demand of 16,000MW and a load-shedding forecast was given to be 840MW during peak evening hours — mainly from 7pm to 11pm — when the country uses the highest electricity.
Most top officials of BPDB, however, believe it would not be possible to generate electricity from the operating plants as per the forecast made for Monday due to different reasons.
They said due to high temperatures, power plants are vulnerable to interruption.
Machines of some plants cannot cope with the high temperature and trip, said a top official of BPDB.
BPDB statistics show that the country will experience a total of 1,291MW of load-shedding, of which Khulna region will face the highest load-shedding of 350MW, followed by Mymensingh 249MW, Cumilla 240MW, Rajshahi 210MW, Rangpur 132MW, Sylhet 100MW and Dhaka 10MW, while Chattogram and Barishal will have no load-shedding.
It also shows that the coal-fired Rampal Maitree Super Thermal Plant of BIFPCL could not resume operation after shutting down two days back. As a result, the national grid is not getting 617MW from the plant.
The sudden shutdown of the Rampal power plant has a big impact on the grid which ultimately increased the shortage, said another BPDB official.
