Power outage has deepened so much that it is occurring almost once every hour, leaving people huffing and puffing in the sweltering heat.
The Power Development Board says a fall in power generation because of fuel shortage has compounded the rolling outage, which it calls ‘load-shedding’.
Worse, the board sees no respite since gas supplies are not improving anytime soon.
Almost all parts of the capital plunged into repeated outage on Tuesday.
Mirpur, Shyamoli, Adabor, Pallabi, Mohammadpur, Shantinagar, Mohakhali, Rajabazar, Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Banani, Motijheel and Ramna neighbourhoods went without power four to six times in the last 12 hours, said residents.
Nusrat Salam, a resident of Adabor, was angry over the frequent power cuts. “The heat, on the one hand, is unbearable, and there is power disruption, on the other. The power went off several times last night. There has not been any improvement until today. The children cannot bear it any longer,” said Salam.
“The final examinations of the children lie ahead. Their study is being hampered in this condition.”
An inhabitant of Mirpur B Block, Sania Siraj, said she could not keep count of the number of times power went out in her area last night.
Shariful Islam works in Mohakhali area. “I woke up to find there was no electricity, and there was no water either. I had to go to office in this condition. There were power disruptions in the office, too. They were so frequent that even the generator would run anymore.”
What these three have shared with the bdnews24.com is the reaction of many citizens.
The PDB says power generation has dropped during the last three days because production at the Kailashtila gas field has been temporarily stopped.
PDB is being forced to manage with a 15 percent generation shortfall vis-à-vis demand.
“Power generation has dropped, as gas production has fallen. It will go up once the gas supply becomes normal,” PDB member Jalal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury told bdnews24.com.
According to the PDB’s estimate, Tuesday’s power generation would stand at 5,740MW against a demand of 6,750MW.
On Monday, the shortfall was to the tune of 930MW. “Daily power generation was over 6,000 megawatts during the Ramadan. But, in the last three days, it dropped below 5,000 megawatts. That’s why this power shortage,” said a PDB official preferring anonymity.
On July 11, power generation shot up to its highest at 6,640MW.
Over 75 percent of the generated power comes from gas-fired plants. On Tuesday, around 37 percent less gas was supplied to these units.
According to Petrobangla figures, power plants were supplied 848 million cubic feet of gas on Tuesday against a demand of almost 1.4 billion.
Gas supply has dropped due to Kailashtila. Moreover, the fertiliser plants are on production, Md Kamruzzaman, Director (operations) of Petrobangla, told bdnews24.com.
“We have requested the PDB to shift to oil-based power generation at the dual-fuel plants for the time being,” he added.
Tofazzel Hossain, Managing Director of the Sylhet Gas Field Ltd, the holding company of Kailashtila gas field, said they had been given Sep 20 to Oct 2 for maintenance of the gas field.
“We hope everything will be all right by this time.”
Source: Bd news24
