Power cuts may worsen in June
Power cuts are likely to increase in June as the dollar crisis, fuel shortage and maintenance work leave around 45 percent of the country's power generation capacity unutilised at a time when the mercury is rising again.
The current capacity of power generation is 23,370MW. From May 24 to May 29, the country on average produced around 11,200MW electricity by day and around 13,300MW during peak hours in the evening, according to data from the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB).
Against a demand for 13,250MW, the country's production was 11,700MW in the evening yesterday, said PGCB sources.
In the first week of May, people experienced severe power cuts when the country endured mild and moderate heat waves. Rainfall brought temporary relief for a couple of weeks, temperature increase has led to rising demand for electricity.
"Till today (yesterday) we are shedding load at a tolerable rate, but we don't know what the situation will be like from next week," a top official of a power distribution company told The Daily Star, wishing anonymity. The country's largest power plant Payra will be shut from next week due to coal crisis, he pointed out.
In the capital, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (Desco) faced around a shortage of 450 MW against a demand for 2,800 MW at 4:00pm yesterday, sources said. The two distribution companies are having to shed load mostly during the daytime, they added.
State minister for power Nasrul Hamid at a programme on Monday said the power cuts were caused by fuel shortage. The price hike of fuels in the international market has led to fuel shortages, he said.
Residents of the capital are faced with power cuts for around three to four hours a day for at least four to five times.
A shopkeeper at Farmgate said he faced power cuts thrice since 9:00am yesterday and the outages last at least one hour each time.
Ferdous Hasan Pranto, who lives at Banglamotor, said several power cuts forced him to stay up all night.
"It was indeed painful to go to the office in the morning after staying up all night. We had no water in the morning due to the power cuts. Over the past 10 days, power cuts occurred three to four times every night."
Adabor resident Shafiqul Islam faced cuts four times between 7:00am and 1:00pm yesterday. "Over the last three days, power cuts are occurring frequently. My one-year-old baby became very sick due to extreme heat."
Residents from Uttara, Mohammadpur, Badda and Jatrabari areas reported frequent power cuts.
"We are trying to keep the cuts proportionate in all areas. But it is not possible to shed the load in some areas, such as the PMO, the secretariat and the hospitals. We can keep the situation under control if we have a shortage of around 200 MW, but the shortage is way more than that now," said Bikash Dewan, managing director of DPDC.
Talking about the gap between demand and production, Desco Managing Director Kausar Ameer Ali said, "Due to the increasing gap, we need to shed the load at least twice a day."
Interestingly, the power sector is getting the highest gas supply ever, over 1,100 million cubic feet a day, which seems to be inadequate as around 4,818 MW gas-fired power generation capacity remains unutilised on average against the capacity of 11,039 MW.
From May 24 to May 29, furnace oil and diesel-fired power plants produced around 3,800 MW of electricity against the capacity of 7,122 MW while coal-based power plants produced around 2,226 MW of electricity against the capacity of 3,360 MW, PGCB sources said. Bangladesh imports around 1,065MW electricity from India against the capacity of 1,160 MW, they added.
Both the coal-based Payra and Rampal power plants produced only around 300 to 350MW of electricity for the last few days, which increased power cuts in different districts in Khulna.
Power generation shortage has forced Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), which supplies electricity to 55 percent of consumers across the country, to shed load in all of its areas.
As of May 29, the highest average of power cuts occurred in Khulna zone, followed by Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Dhaka, Rangpur, Cumilla, Sylhet and Barishal.