1,000MW load shedding makes life miserable
With no practical move to improve gas supplies to power plants, the load-shedding situation continues to worsen as the dry scorching heat drive people to use more electricity at homes and offices.
The officially estimated power demand yesterday was 4,500 megawatts (MW) against a generation of around 3,500MW. Around 800MW power could not be generated due to short supply of gas to many power plants.
Power Development Board (PDB) sources said while the official power demand was just 4,500MW, the unofficial demand was hovering around 5,900MW.
A top official of the power ministry, however, told The Daily Star yesterday that the ministry is planning to hold a high-level meeting with the chief adviser about improving gas supplies for power generation.
"We are presently doing our homework regarding the gas and power situation. We will soon hold a top-level meeting so that effective decisions are made," he said.
Gas is a major concern also because several new gas-fired power plants with nearly 1,000MW generation capacity are expected to be drafted into service this year. "We are expecting 200MW new power generation from May. If we can not ensure the gas supplies, it will become meaningless," the official pointed out.
He said some additional power could be produced yesterday because of a shutdown of the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory due to technical faults. It made some gas available for the Raozan and Shikalbaha power plants to increase power production. "But it was temporary," he noted.
"Right now it is boro harvesting season. We have dedicated 1,000MW power for irrigation by providing 2.25 lakh special connections on high priority. Once this harvesting time is over, we can divert this power to other sectors," he pointed out.
A PDB official said the real power situation was worse than the official picture. "The Rural Electrification Board (REB) needs 2,000MW, but is given less than half of that. Desa and Desco need more than 1,800MW power and the PDB needs another 2,000MW," he added.
A part of these unofficial demands of customers not connected to the national grid are met by alternative sources of power, he noted.
The Power System Master Plan (PSMP) of 1995 projected the power demand for this summer at 6,000MW. "Since the PSMP's projections had been proven to be solid, we can say we are giving a false and lower official power demand figure. This is why the terrible load-shedding does not match with the official load-shedding figures," he pointed out.
Besides, due to the rising heat power consumption has shot up so much that sometimes local power distribution systems tend to fail.
Frequent load shedding was reported from almost all parts of the city. In Karwan Bazar, power disruption occurred five times with more than five hours of outage between 8:00am and 5:00pm. Multiple power cuts for periods totalling two to three hours occurred in Eskaton Garden, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Moghbazar, Khilgaon, Goran, Shahjahanpur, Mohammadpur, Banani, Uttara and other places yesterday.
Petrobangla's affiliates which supply gas are presently rationing supplies to power plants, fertiliser factories and some industrial and commercial consumers. Against a demand of 2,000 million cubic feet of gas a day, Petrobangla is currently supplying 1,770 million cubic feet. Even though it can supply more, the present pipeline network does not allow it to increase the supply where it is needed the most.
The PDB needs 840 million cubic feet of gas per day to generate 4,028MW power, but Petrobangla and its affiliates can supply maximum 679 million cubic feet of gas per day. Gas crisis has forced it to cut power production at the Raozan plant by 240MW, Ghorashal 220, Sikalbaha 10, Haripur 34, Siddhirganj 90, Mymensingh 77 and Ashuganj by 10MW. The authorities are now even requesting more than 200 industries to limit the use of gas.
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