Power situation in Bangladesh to improve by today

In a rare move, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid has apologised to the nation for the disruption in power supply over the last one week and hoped things would be normal by today.

“I'm sincerely sorry as common people at different parts of the entire Bangladesh, including Dhaka city, Chittagong and northern region, have been suffering due to the power supply disruptions,” he said in a Facebook post on Wednesday night.

The supply of fuel oil across the country through waterways was hampered seriously as water vessel workers had been on a strike over the last one week to realise their various demands, he added.

“That's why, electricity generation at oil-based power stations had been badly affected and it [power production] has marked a fall by 1,600 megawatts. At the same time, irrigation for cropland has also stagnated due to the crisis of fuel,” Nasrul observed.

Meanwhile, the power, energy and mineral resources ministry emailed a press release yesterday afternoon which said the disruption was due to some unavoidable reasons.

Saying that the situation would improve soon, it urged the people to have patience and use electricity sensibly.

The level of load shedding was decreasing gradually yesterday as most oil-based power plants that had suspended production over the last few days started coming back online.

These plants, which had little to no storage facilities for fuel, could not generate around 500MW to 800MW of power as they ran out of fuel.

The waterways transport workers' strike began on April 20 and as they withdrew their strike late Tuesday, supply of oil to these plants resumed.

“We are hoping that a good part of the load shedding will be taken care of within a day or two,” said a Power Development Board (PDB) official. “Some load shedding may continue if there is no rain,” the official said.

“Due to the continuing heat wave, the efficiency of power generators had dropped, this has also reduced power generation to some extent,” he pointed out.

The PDB had been supplying up to 8,300MW, the highest ever in the country, until last week. Despite the ongoing heat wave, this supply could meet most power demand. Load shedding was almost zero.

More than 60 percent of the country's power is generated from gas-based plants, while oil-based power plants generate around 2,800MW power. Another 600MW is imported from India, while hydro- and coal-based plants contribute 300MW.