Major Power Plants’ Faults Load-shedding grips country
Reza Mahmud :
A large-scale power supply shortage has occurred in the national grid due to mechanical failures and coal shortages, resulting in a sudden spike in load shedding across the country.
According to the latest hourly electricity generation and demand data, more than 1,300 megawatts of load shedding occurred by 9 PM on Tuesday, sources said.
Such a load shedding might cause harms to the Aman paddy cultivation as pumping water is very crucial in this time.
Besides, people also suffer lots from the load shedding due to scorching hot weather prevailing across the country.
A reliable source from the Power Division said it may take two to three days for the situation to improve.
Experts blamed apathies of the concern authorities for properly maintaining mechanical portions of the power plants.
They also expressed anxiety over the authorities’ indifference to purchasing raw materials like coal in time.
When contacted, eminent energy expert Dr. Ijaz Hossain on Wednesday told The New Nation, “There no reason we see to get technical faults in many plants at a time.
The concerned authorities have to pay due attention to maintaining the technical sides of all power plants.”
The experts also said that the authorities have apathy toward purchasing coal in time as it is very much important to run the power plants incessantly.
When contacted, Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan on Wednesday told The New Nation, “Several power plants have suspended production due to some technical faults and coal shortages.”
He said, “The situation will start improving from the evening (on Wednesday)”
It was learned that a 1,320 MW unit at the Rampal power plant in Bagerhat was shut down due to mechanical problems. However, another source claimed that the 660 MW unit at Rampal Thermal Power Plant went offline because of a lack of coal needed to run it. Meanwhile, one unit (800 MW) of India’s Adani Power Plant, which has a total capacity of 1,600 MW, also stopped supplying electricity. As of 9 PM, Adani’s plant was providing only 745 MW.
Additionally, a gas-based power plant in Bibiyana with a capacity of over 400 MW went offline due to mechanical failure. However, sources confirmed that the Bibiyana plant resumed power generation at around 10:30 PM.
In total, the combined capacity of the three power plants that dropped out of the grid was nearly 1,800 MW. With such large production units offline, load shedding has been enforced in various parts of the country. The Power Development Board (BPDB) is trying to manage supply through alternative measures.
Meanwhile, no senior officials of BPDB were willing to comment on the issue while trying over telephone.
According to BPDB data, electricity demand yesterday was 14,890 MW during the day and 16,400 MW at night. Transmission company Power Grid Company of Bangladesh PLC (PGCB) reported that load shedding on September 8-9 ranged between a minimum of 30 MW and a maximum of 938 MW. In particular, load shedding started to rise after 12 noon yesterday. Hourly demand and generation data show that at least 800 MW of load shedding occurred every hour until 6 PM. After 7 PM, the level increased further, reaching over 1,300 MW by 9 PM.
The latest PGCB data shows that at 9 PM yesterday, electricity demand was 16,250 MW, while generation stood at 14,853 MW. The entire shortfall was managed through load shedding.