Low voltage caused Nov 1 blackout
The government committee formed to probe the November 1 nationwide blackout could not find out exactly what had caused one of the longest and widespread power cut in the country.
In its probe report submitted to the power, energy and mineral resources ministry yesterday, it cited low voltage as the main reason behind the nearly 10-hour power outage.
"But we could not identify the location that set off the low voltage," Mohammad Hossain, member secretary of the nine-member team, told The Daily Star.
The majority of the power stations the team visited are not automated and so they relied on manual recordings during the investigation, he said, which was why the origin of the low voltage could not be traced back.
The blackout was caused around 11:30am on November 1 by a circuit failure at the India-Bangladesh power interconnection station in Bheramara. The chain reaction of the tripping was so strong that all power plants across the country had to be shutdown.
Bangladesh imports around 450 megawatt power from India through the high voltage line.
Hossain did not blame the high-voltage at the Bheramara station for the power outage, saying the national grid was functional 14 seconds after the tripping.
He, however, said, "It is true that the grid failure would not have caused had the high-voltage transmission line not tripped at Bheramara.
But the primary reason was low voltage, he added.
In the report, the probe team came up with 20 recommendations to prevent such disasters in future, including replacing manual watches with the global positioning system (GPS) at all power stations and grid substations, upgrading the National Load Dispatch Centre technologically and improving management.
"We need GPS timing at every power station and grid substation," said Hossain, adding that the committee also recommended appointing an international consultant to modernise the country's old power system.
The team made the suggestions with the help of a dozen local and international experts and based on the opinions of the International Finance Corporation.
Officials said the report might be made public.
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