Frequent load-shedding has made life more miserable when public life is suffocating in the scorching heat.
Talking to the officials of the electricity department, it is known that the demand for electricity has also increased due to excessive increase in temperature. Again due to energy crisis and maintenance, the production of several power plants is now stopped. In this situation, the electricity department is not able to produce electricity according to the demand.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid expressed his grief to the customers on Sunday; assuring that the situation will be normalized soon.
He said that the situation will be normal within two weeks. But amid the ongoing load shedding, the production of the country's largest coal-based Payra thermal power plant is going to be completely stopped from Monday due to the depletion of coal reserves. This will lead to worse loadshedding in the country starting from May.
Those concerned with the electricity department fear that the countrymen will have to suffer due to load shedding throughout the month of June.
People of all categories from children to the elderly are suffering due to the excessive load shedding going on across the country due to the energy crisis. Load shedding is happening day and night. No matter what village or city - there is no escape from load shedding.
Meteorological Department said we have to wait for some more rain. And if the rain does not fall and the temperature does not drop, the load shedding situation will not improve, said the power department.
Officials of the electricity department told Bangladesh Pratidin that the ongoing load shedding will continue throughout the month of June. In the capital, there is now four to five hours of load shedding day and night. The situation in rural areas is worse than this. There is load shedding for 8 to 10 hours day and night. The city is experiencing power outages six to eight times a day. And loadshedding is happening every time from 30 minutes to an hour. The amount of load shedding in villages is double or more than in cities.
According to PGCB's website, load shedding is highest after midnight for several days. Maximum load shedding is happening from 12 pm to 3 am. After 10:00 PM, the power generation drops to an average of 2,000 MW. In normal times, the demand for electricity decreases at night, but it does not for a few days due to the heat. For this load shedding is also increasing.
Due to the high temperature, the demand for electricity has been approaching 16,000 megawatts per day for a few days. In this, one and a half to two and a half thousand megawatts of electricity have to be loadshedded daily. Again, load shedding is increasing due to increase in electricity demand at night. More than 50 power plants are now shut down due to lack of coal, gas and oil required for power plant maintenance.
Bangladesh's electricity production capacity is now 23 thousand 370 megawatts, but due to regular maintenance and energy crisis, at least 4 thousand megawatts of electricity cannot be produced on average.
The production capacity of gas based power plants is 11 thousand 39 MW. But until 12 noon Sunday, 6 thousand 393 megawatts were produced due to lack of gas. On the other hand, the power generation capacity from furnace oil and diesel is more than 7 thousand MW. But on Sunday, 2 thousand 67 megawatts of electricity was produced.
Power generation capacity from coal is 3 thousand 440 MW. 1 thousand 992 megawatts were produced on Sunday. A unit of Payra, the country's largest power plant, was shut down on May 25 as it could not buy coal for months due to arrears due to lack of dollars. The second unit is also scheduled to be closed after Monday, as the stock is exhausted. 600 MW electricity is available from this center. If it is closed, load shedding will increase further.
On June 3, electricity demand in the country was 13,635 MW and production was 11,647 MW. The shortfall was 1 thousand 988 MW. And the demand till 12 noon on Sunday was 14 thousand 300 MW. Against this, 11 thousand 905 MW was supplied. The shortfall was 2,287 MW.
Director General of Power Cell Mohammad Hossain told Bangladesh Pratidin, “These days we are producing electricity up to 6 thousand 800 megawatts with gas-powered electricity. But even then demand and supply gap remains. Increased demand for electricity due to excessive heating. As power generation with diesel based plants is expensive, we use less.”
“These power plants are operated during peak hours. Usually these power plants are operated at night. As a result load shedding has to be done during the day. At night, 4,500 megawatts of electricity is needed more than during the day. As a result, load shedding is also high. Global crisis on one side, environment is also treating us badly. Both have increased loadshedding.”
"We hope that we will not have to face the problems we had to face with coal in the future. The fuel price and the dollar situation are becoming normal than before,” he added.
Power Development Board (PDB) Director (Public Relations Department) Md. Shamim Hasan told Bangladesh Pratidin, “If the temperature drops or if there is a drop of rain, the demand for electricity will decrease by 3 to 4 thousand megawatts. Apart from this, the situation will not change unless there is a dramatic situation for the time being. A new power plant is unlikely to come up in two weeks. As a result, there is no news of relief on load shedding any time soon.”
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Energy Advisor Prof. M. Shamsul Alam said, “When and what kind of electricity is required, the government was informed in advance by PDB. We have increased production capacity. Again, Adani's electricity has also come into the national grid. All in all, there is no structural problem in generating electricity on demand.”
“There was this problem last year too, we could not supply fuel in accordance with the demand. It was not difficult to find out the fuel demand by analyzing which type of fuel can be supplied and which will not, which will cost relatively less. This plan could have been taken earlier. Just as people die when food is scarce, economies die when fuel is scarce. This matter should be understood by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance.”
“As we know, electricity demand increases every month. As such, it is not unknown which fuel can be used to generate electricity at an affordable price. We also know how much fuel is required for this. Then why the government could not collect the necessary money for this. As far as I know, these issues have been reported to the Ministry of Finance from PDB, but the Ministry has not given importance to the matter. And now the crisis has intensified due to not paying attention,” he added.
The Minister of State for Power said, “I know that the situation has become unbearable due to large load shedding. From the power department we are trying to resolve it as soon as possible. The government is trying to resolve how quickly coal can be brought in at least to Payra (Payra thermal power station). It is currently running at half capacity. Barapukuria is running at half capacity. Our liquid fuel power plants are also running at about half capacity. Due to these reasons, our level of load shedding has increased a lot.”
“We especially have increased loadshedding space here. We have been repeatedly saying that our fuels - gas, coal and oil; It takes us a long time to provide them. Due to this, our loadshedding area is gradually increasing. Now the problem that has arisen, its size has become quite a bit bigger.”
Highlighting the recent situation, Nasrul Hamid said, “We have been monitoring it since morning in various parts of rural areas, including Dhaka's surroundings. We apologize from the power department. We are trying to figure out how to get rid of this situation soon. We hope to be out of here as soon as possible within the next 10 to 15 days. Because we have to supply coal, oil, gas, and also gas to industry. These situations have come together.”
He said, “We are seeing the weather conditions, the area of the heat wave has increased. It got close to 38 degrees, got to 41 degrees somewhere. Because of this, demand has also increased during peak hours. The power plant that we had in stock, which we were keeping ready for uninterrupted operation, is also not able to provide it especially because of fuel. But we have the power plant to ourselves.”
“We are doing some load shedding at some places. Shortage of our coal, gas and oil. We can't supply properly. That's why this problem is happening. I think it is very temporary. Nothing to be too disappointed about. Provision has already been made. We are trying to move to a better situation in at least two weeks.”
“We were trying since two months ago. This is because these situations are not resolved if they are not dealt with beforehand. We knew it could go into a situation like this. We were trying to come up with such a solution. But overall we have a lot to see. There are economic issues, there is the issue of opening LC (import letter of credit) on time, there is the issue of getting fuel on time. But we have to coordinate those things together. Hopefully, a solution is in place. We have to give that time. Everyone will have to suffer a little for a week or two. He said, "We are seeing load shedding of about 2500 megawatts. I hope to reduce the load shedding gradually,” he added.
@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on June 05 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan.
