No apparent escape from power outage for now
The Northern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) supplies electricity to the northern region of the country, providing power services to people living in 16 districts of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions, but power outages have hit hard in several northern districts over the past couple of days with people witnessing load shedding for alternative hours in some places of the Rajshahi city.
NESCO’s Rajshahi region chief engineer Abdur Rashid told Prothom Alo over mobile phone on Tuesday afternoon, “I have not been getting electricity as per the demand since Sunday afternoon, so I cannot supply either. I am helpless.”
As many as 346 megawatts of electricity was received against a demand of 465 megawatts at 12:00pm on Monday, he informed.
NESCO officials hinted there is no escape for the people from load shedding soon and they do not know how long such situation will continue either.
According to sources of power and energy ministry, and power production and distribution companies, supply crisis of gas disrupted the power production with the government skipping purchase of LNG (liquefied natural gas) from spot markets amid high price at international markets.
A significant portion of the country’s gas supply goes to power production and industries. Low gas pressure is also disrupting operation at factories.
Abdul Goni, owners of AG Plastic Factory in Rajshahi city’s BSCIC area, said they are not getting the non-stop supply of electricity no more than 45 minutes, disrupting the factory operation. The daily outputs of his factory are 100,000 plastic bottles but power outages cut it to no more than 36,000 bottles a day, he added.
Like Rajshahi, scenario is same elsewhere in the country. On Monday, 10,831 megawatts of electricity were generated against a demand of 12,300 megawatts; 12,236 megawatts of electricity were generated against a demand of 14,000 megawatts during the pick hour from 6:00pm to 11:00pm on Monday. And such deficit of about 2,000 megawatts of electricity is contributing to load shedding.
Load shedding getting scheduled
The prime minister urged all to be economical in using electricity and instructed the authorities concerned to fix power outage time based on area amidst such situation.
BSS reports: The Prime Minister said the price inflation is taking place globally even in the developed countries like America, England and Great Britain are now facing acute power crisis because of continued price hike of the electricity producing elements such as gas, diesel and LNG while the coal is not available mainly for the ongoing pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war.
She said this while addressing the 47th founding anniversary celebration of the President Guard Regiment (PGR) at its headquarters in Dhaka cantonment, joining the programme virtually from her official Ganobhaban residence in Dhaka.
She added that the world is also currently facing transportation problems as ships are not being operated regularly due to the war.
The Prime Minister said she is thinking of imposing area-based specific-time load shedding to reduce the use of fuel in generating electricity in the power plants. She is considering reducing electricity production for some time to save the fuel for producing power. “In that case, if we become economical and increase our savings, we can face any situation,” BSS quoted her as saying.
A meeting on ongoing situation is likely to be held between the officials of power and energy divisions and the top leadership of the government in a day or tows.
Power Division expects demand to drop
The Power Development Board (PDB) said there was a power outage of 1,400 megawatts across the country on Monday, with Dhaka witnessing highest load shedding of 300 megawatts. People concerned said the PDB’s assessment may not be accurate and the actual demand should be higher and that is why nationwide power outage is being forced.
The assessment of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, however, varies from that of the PDB. According to the BREB technical report, there was a deficit of 2,169 megawatts electricity on Monday, 4 July 2022 and the agency received 6,195 megawatts of electricity against the maximum demand of 8,364 megawatts.
The BREB had a deficit of just 4 megawatts electricity on 4 July last year.
BREB supplies 55pc of electricity in country
The Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) supplies electricity a part of the capital covering Mirpur, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara. DESCO received 150 megawatts of less electricity than its demand on Monday, with each of its feeders (a certain jurisdiction) witnessing on an average power outage for a half-hour.
The Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) supplies electricity in Mohamamdpur to Old Dhaka area and its neighbourhoods and demand is high in these locations. Like previous time, daily power deficit stands at 300 megawatts with an-hour load shedding occurring in each feeder.
Power outage also hit hard at clod storages. Rangpur Chamber of Commerce president Mostafa Sohrab Chowdhury said generators are being used for power supply to operate cold storages but temperature of cold storages cannot be controlled properly in this way, so quality of the preserved product may fall.
Responsible officials of neither Petrobangla nor PDB could hint out any way out of ongoing situations. Petrobangla tried to increase gas supply slightly to power production by decreasing the supply to other sectors. Officials expects demand of electricity may fall after holidays begins on Eid-ul-Azha and demand may also see more drop during rainy season.
The power, energy and mineral resources ministry has decided not to increase import of gas for the time being amid the abnormal rise of LNG price in international markets.
The situation in various countries is being monitored, especially, power outage is also hitting the developed countries, an official at Power Division said.
To date, the PDB produced maximum 14,782 megawatts of electricity on a single day on 16 April this year and power generation continues to decrease since then. And about 6,000 megawatts of power production capacity are not being unutilised because of gas crisis, shortage of coal in addition to the maintenance of several power plants.
Power secretary Md Habibur Rahman said power crisis will not go away before Eid-ul-Azha. The official, however, expected load shedding to be dropped after Eid as shops, malls once again will be closed after 8:00m. More such things are being considered to save the electricity, he added.