Rising power demand worsens load shedding

With no rain clouds in the sky promising a respite, the hot weather continues to put an extra load on the demand for power resulting in frequent and longer power cuts in the city and elsewhere in the country.
The official load shedding yesterday was 1,125 megawatts (MW), while Power Development Board (PDB) sources put unofficial conservative figures at around 2000MW. Officials say that there is no chance of improvement of this scenario this month.
As per the PDB's schedule, different power plants targeted generation of 3,722MW power against an official demand of 4,600MW during the peak hours in the evening.
However, as the 80MW Tongi and another 40MW Westmont power plant went out of operation in the evening, the maximum generation yesterday was 3,475MW.
"Whatever the official figures are, these do not reflect the sufferings of the public," admits an official of Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Desa).
In such a tight supply-demand situation, the Desa and Desco are supposed to enforce a daily load shedding schedule, allocating one-hour load shedding for each area in one time. But in reality, load shedding in many areas stretch up to two hours and the authorities do not even respond to any complaints.
For instance, a part of the Baridhara diplomatic zone went out of power yesterday morning for more than two and a half hours. When residents tried to reach Desco (Dhaka Electricity Supply Company) officials, they refused to listen to the complaints saying they are "busy".
Meanwhile, tired of frequent power cuts a section of people are allegedly using gas-fired small power generators without taking permission from the authorities to generate power at home. Sources said these people are connecting the generators to their domestic gas connection.
On the other hand, gas supply constraint is currently causing various power plants to produce less power. "Right now, gas constraint is responsible for non-generation of 499MW power. The plants of Raozan, Ghorashal, Shahjibazar, Sikalbaha, Haripur, Siddhirganj and Mymensingh are producing less power than their capability," said a PDB official.
"The situation might have improved a bit, if the new 90MW Fenchuganj power plant came into operation this month as per the schedule. But, due to a feud between the plant's Chinese builder Harbin and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) over exemption of import duties worth Tk 50 crore, the plant's operation is still uncertain," he said.
Among other power plants, the two-unit 250MW coal-fired Barapukuria power plant is producing only 100MW using just one unit. "There is adequate coal supply, but this poorly built plant can not go for full generation when we need it most, due to technical glitches," he added.