Power situation worsens ahead of Ramadan
The people here fear huge power crisis during Ramadan as the situation has deteriorated recently as five, out of ten power generating units, remained closed for long due to shortage of gas supply and other technical glitches.
Power Development Board (PDB) officials, however, said they have taken initiatives, including awareness programme among its consumers, to ensure limited use of electricity and avoid misuse to improve the situation during the holy month.
Sources in PDB Chittagong said against a peak demand of 550 megawatts (MW) the functioning power units are now able to generate only up to 200MW.
Dwellers in different areas in the city have been suffering a lot while activities at industrial and commercial units have been disrupted due to frequent power outage that increased both at peak and off-peak hours.
Meher Nigar, a housewife at Hazipara of Agrabad, said they could hardly able to use power for 40 minutes without interruption.
Electronic equipment used for household chores and industrial purpose have been damaging due to the outage.
The port city has experienced around 200MW of loadshedding during peak hours on August 24.
According to the sources only five power-generation units, out of ten, are now functioning at three power stations in Chittagong region.
One of the two 28MW units at Shikalbaha Barge Mounted Plant became out of order four years ago while another was forced to suspend generation in January this year for non-availability of sufficient gas supply, sources at the PDB South Zone said.
Karnaphuli Hydroelectric Project at Kaptai, with its four units out of five functioning, is now generating up to 100MW to 112MW a day against the capacity of 230MW.
One of the two 210MW units at Raozan Power Plant, remained closed for last eight months due to lack of sufficient gas supply.
Sources at the plant said it is possible to generate at least 360MW of electricity from these two units if supply of required gas is ensured.
But inadequate supply of gas has kept the plant limited generating only to 90MW for the last couple of months.
Sources said the plant is now being provided with only 22 million cubic feet (Mcft) gas against the demand of 90 Mcft.
The lone unit of Shikalbaha Plant with the capacity of 60MW remained closed since first week of April this year as required gas could not be supplied.
Meanwhile, government has taken an initiative to manage 10 Mcft gas from Bangura Gas Field during Ramadan for the gas-run power plants in Chittagong to increase the generation here, the PDB sources said.
PDB officials said the decision is still under process and they are yet to get any decision from the government regarding the gas supply until filing of this report on Tuesday evening.
PDB Distribution Zone (South) Chief Engineer Jyotish Chandra Biswas said over 40MW more power can be generated if the supply of 10mcft gas is ensured.
He said they have requested the industrial and commercial units to keep their use of power limited during the peak hours from 5:00pm to 10:00pm that will help PDB to provide more power to residential users during iftar and tarabi.
He said they have arranged a view exchange meeting with BGMEA leaders and will arrange such meetings with others like BKMEA, owners of hotel and restaurants, small and cottage industries, shoe industries and heavy industries as part of the awareness campaign within two or three days.
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