Load-shedding hits Dhaka as gas supply falls further

The country has been grappling with a gas crisis for more than three weeks. Amid this, gas supply from Summit’s terminal stopped this Thursday afternoon due to adverse weather, further reducing gas availability. The fuel crisis is disrupting power generation. As power generation has been unable to meet demand, severe load-shedding has been imposed outside Dhaka for the past week. Now, under pressure from the situation, load-shedding has also begun in Dhaka.

Two officials familiar with the matter from the Energy Division and Petrobangla told Prothom Alo that gas supply from Summit’s terminal had been reduced from Monday evening to prevent stocks from running out. On Tuesday, it fell to 200 million cubic feet. From Wednesday until this afternoon, 100 million cubic feet was being supplied. At 5:00 pm, Thursday, the supply stopped completely.

There are two floating terminals in Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar, for supplying imported LNG. Of these, the terminal operated by US company Excelerate Energy has a capacity of 600 million cubic feet, while the terminal operated by local company Summit has a capacity of 500 million cubic feet. Excelerate’s terminal was shut down following a fire incident on 21 July. This reduced gas supply and worsened the crisis. From household cooking stoves to industries and power generation, activities have been disrupted. Long queues have also formed at filling stations as vehicles struggle to get CNG.

According to Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla) sources, Excelerate’s terminal has two boilers, each with a capacity of 300 million cubic feet. One of the boilers was damaged in the fire. Gas supply from the undamaged boiler resumed on August 6. Work is underway to restart the damaged boiler. Before it can be restarted, gas supply from the terminal will have to be stopped for testing. This will result in a complete 72-hour suspension of supply from Excelerate. Discussions are underway on when this will be done. No specific time has yet been set.

Sources said that after Excelerate’s terminal was shut down, Summit initially supplied up to 560 million cubic feet of gas a day. Subsequently, Summit’s terminal was supplying 500 million cubic feet daily. A new LNG carrier arrived in the Bay of Bengal on Monday carrying LNG. Due to adverse weather conditions at sea, the LNG could not be transferred from the new vessel to Summit’s terminal. Therefore, on Petrobangla’s instructions, Summit reduced its supply after 7:00 pm on Monday.

The country’s daily gas demand is 3.8 billion cubic feet. Under normal circumstances, the situation is managed by supplying up to 2.7 billion cubic feet. Of this, 1.05 billion cubic feet comes from LNG. Now, less than 300 million cubic feet is being supplied from LNG. As a result, total gas supply has fallen to 1.93 billion cubic feet. It was 2.03 billion cubic feet even yesterday.

As a result, the country’s six gas distribution companies are struggling to maintain supply. Titas, the largest gas distribution company, has a daily demand of 1.9–2 billion cubic feet. Under normal circumstances, it receives 1.55 billion cubic feet. After the reduction in LNG supply, this fell to 1.2 billion cubic feet. For the past two days, it has been receiving 1 billion cubic feet a day. It may fall further from Thursday evening.

People involved in the sector said that although the government has taken various initiatives to tackle the energy crisis, there is no immediate solution. The government has to rely on nature. Rain in different parts of the country throughout the day Thursday has reduced electricity demand, thereby lowering the extent of load-shedding. In addition, the weather forecast says the sea may return to normal by tomorrow night. If conditions remain favourable, Summit will be able to resume gas supply from Saturday.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Aninda Islam Amit told Prothom Alo on Thursday that if the weather improves Friday night, LNG transfer from the vessel to the terminal will begin early Saturday. In that case, Summit will resume gas supply after Saturday afternoon. As demand for electricity and fuel is somewhat lower during the Friday-Saturday weekend, public suffering may be somewhat reduced.

The government has changed the opening hours of all shopping malls, markets and shops across the country to save fuel and electricity. Under the new rules, these establishments can remain open from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm. At the same time, all illuminated billboards have been ordered to be switched off by 7:00 pm. An order has also been issued to completely stop all types of decorative lighting. The new decision took effect from Wednesday.

Energy and Mineral Resources Division sources said efforts are being made to keep the crisis manageable. The power sector is currently facing greater problems. People across the country have electricity in their homes, so priority is being given to power generation. Petrobangla has been instructed to ensure that gas supply to the power sector does not decline. As a result, gas supply to industries has been reduced. Households may also face difficulties in using gas stoves for cooking. However, the government has decided to impose load-shedding in Dhaka as well to reduce the suffering of people in rural areas.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Aninda Islam Amit said load-shedding is being imposed at a tolerable level in Dhaka to provide some relief to people in rural areas. He hoped that the electricity and energy situation would improve significantly from Sunday if everything goes as planned.

Two distribution companies, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO), supply electricity to Dhaka. Responsible sources at the two companies said load-shedding also began in Dhaka from Wednesday night. It started at 11:00 pm on Wednesday. As a result, load-shedding was reported in different parts of Dhaka. Around midnight, customers from several areas, including Panthapath, Jatrabari, Rajabazar and Lalmatia, and Monipuripara, complained to Prothom Alo about load-shedding. Some said their areas had experienced load-shedding more than once.

However, a responsible DPDC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo that 250 megawatts of load-shedding would be imposed from 11:00 pm to 4:30am, 200 megawatts from 6am to noon, and another 200 megawatts from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. There will be no load-shedding from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm. No area will experience load-shedding more than once. This means that a customer in Dhaka will experience only one hour of load-shedding in 24 hours.