On the one hand, the heat is intensifying due to a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal; on the other, one power plant after another is becoming inoperative because of technical problems.
Most recently, one unit of the Adani power plant supplying electricity from India and one unit of the country’s RNPL power plant have shut down. As a result, load-shedding increased further across the country on Thursday (September 10).
According to the electricity situation report at 3 p.m. on Thursday (September 10), the country was facing a power shortage of 3,557 megawatts at that time. Electricity demand was reported at 16,345 megawatts. However, this was at least 1,000 megawatts lower than the day’s peak demand.
At the same time, the country was generating 12,788 megawatts of electricity. As a result, the large gap between demand and generation led to increased load-shedding in various areas.
Explaining the sudden power shortage, Jahurul Islam, Member (Generation) of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB), said that one of Adani’s units had suddenly shut down again. They were making efforts to repair it quickly. Meanwhile, one unit of another power plant in the country, RNPL, had also shut down. Altogether, this had created a new shortfall of 1,200 megawatts of electricity. In addition, the existing problems remained as before.
An analysis of various data from the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) shows that at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, electricity supplied by Adani suddenly fell from 1,430 megawatts to 758 megawatts. Generation from coal-fired power plants had also declined to 4,857 megawatts, compared with 5,200 megawatts a day earlier.
In addition to the coal-fired power plants, several gas-fired power plants have already shut down because of technical problems. For example, a 450-megawatt power plant in Ashuganj had generated 319 megawatts of electricity just a day earlier. However, it shut down yesterday due to a technical problem. Furthermore, because of gas shortages, at least seven power plants in the Dhaka region are either shut down or operating at reduced capacity. One plant each is also out of operation in the Chattogram, Cumilla, and Mymensingh regions.
Meanwhile, the severe power shortage has caused intense load-shedding in various parts of the country. Load-shedding, which had eased for several weeks, has once again become severe. While electricity is being cut off around four times a day in urban areas, rural areas are again experiencing load-shedding lasting 7 to 10 hours.