Port city grapples with frequent power cuts

Shuvechha Ghosh, a resident of Askar Dighir Par area in Chattogram city, was finding it hard to put her toddler to sleep on Tuesday night, amid severe heat alongside frequent power cuts.

"Power cuts occurred a total of eight times today, including four times since the evening. This situation has been going on over the last one week. It has become very difficult for us to stay inside in this heat with power outages occurring so many times daily. My father-in-law and my son couldn't sleep the whole night due to discomfort," she said.

Like her, many residents in the port city, including in Askar Dighir Par, Panchlaish, Bakalia, Chawk Bazar, Halishahar, Bahaddarhat, Chandgaon, Agrabad, Pahartoli, Muradpur, Katalganj, Sholoshahar, Mehedibagh, Bibir Hat and Dampara areas, have been suffering due to frequent load shedding, occurring as many as 12 times a day in some areas.

The highest and lowest temperatures recorded in the port city were 33.1 degrees Celsius and 26.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, said Mahmudul Alam, officer of Chattogram Met Office.

Abdul Aziz of Panchlaish area said, "Such frequent power cuts are somehow tolerable during daytime, but at night it is unbearable. We could not sleep last night due to this amid the heat."

The officials of Power Development Board, Chattogram said they were compelled to go for load shedding due to a big discrepancy between the local demand for power and its supply.

"Chattogram city has a daily demand for around 1,200 MW in peak hours and around 1,100 MW in off-peak hours during summer. It gets only 900-1,000 MW power from the national grid on average. As such, there is no alternative to load shedding in the present scenario," said Akbar Hossain, assistant director of PDB, Chattogram.

According to PDB sources, the power stations in the greater Chattogram region generate more power compared to the demand.

On Tuesday, the 29 units of 22 power stations in the region produced 2,202 MW power, against a demand for 1,175 MW at 11:00am and 1,217 MW at 7:00pm in the port city.

However, the supply to the port city was 900 MW at 11:00am and 1,084 MW at 7:00pm.

As such, frequent load shedding happened every now and then across the city, causing sufferings to the city dwellers.

Asked, Humayun Kabir, chief engineer of PDB, Chattogram, said the power supply is controlled centrally through the national grid and they had nothing to do with it.

"We have to manage the distribution of power with what we get from the national grid. Due to the discrepancy between demand and supply, load shedding becomes unavoidable," he added.

Contacted, SM Nazer Hossain, central vice president of Consumers' Association of Bangladesh, said the government should set a criterion for distribution of power according to priority.