Frequent power cuts pile misery on city residents

With life in the capital limping in the searing heat, city dwellers are suffering due to frequent power cuts.

Yesterday, most of the power cuts in the capital lasted for at least an hour, prompting many people to lodge complaints with the power distribution companies.

Meanwhile, load shedding of up to several hours were reported in different parts of Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rajshahi, and a number of other districts.

Residents of Dhaka's neighbouring districts have also been experiencing five to six hours of power cuts for the last two days.

Mir Rasel, a resident of the capital's New Eskaton, said there was a power outage sometime on Wednesday night after he went to bed around 11:45pm.

"I woke at 3:30am and found my bedsheet sweat-drenched. There was another power outage around 5:45am. I then got up and took a shower."

"There were two more power cuts at 8:25am and 10:30am today [yesterday]," he added.

Rasel now feels like he's stuck between a rock and a hard place because of the frequent power cuts and the heatwave. "I can neither stay at home nor go out."

Souvagga Barua, a resident of Basabo, said he experienced five power cuts from Wednesday night till yesterday evening, each lasting an hour.

Rubina Akhter Urmi, a resident of Azimpur, said she could not study for a recruitment test due to several power cuts last night. She is supposed to sit the exam today.

Residents of the capital's Mirpur, Uttara, Mohammadpur, Badda, Jatrabari, Old Dhaka, and some other parts of the city vented their frustration on social media yesterday after experiencing frequent power cuts.

Against a demand for 15,700MW, the country produced 14,334MW of power yesterday, said sources at the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.

The Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) experienced a shortfall of 185MW in power supply, while the Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) faced a deficit of around 265MW yesterday evening.

Both the distribution companies blamed the shortages in power production for the frequent load shedding.

Yesterday, the two distribution companies resorted toload shedding for more than three to four hours on average across the capital and five to six hours in the other cities.

Scorching temperatures over the last four days have led to a surge in electricity demand, officials of DESCO and DPDC said.

However, enough electricity cannot be generated due to insufficient fuel, they added.