Although the authorities announced an organized area wise load shedding of one hour, in reality, people are facing the problem for hours, and several times.
The government has taken various measures including an hour-wise planned load shedding to save fuel in order to reduce pressure on foreign exchange.
Routine of load shedding is maintained in some areas of Dhaka. However, in many areas across the country, people are facing four to five hours of power cuts daily on an average. People’s daily life has become miserable with the ongoing load shedding across the country. Hours-long power cuts are disrupting factory production and increasing costs. Power Distribution Companies said their services are also being disrupted as they are not receiving enough electricity from the national grid.
According to Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the
demand for electricity in summer is increasing every day. In this situation, 10 diesel-based power plants with a capacity of 1,290 megawatts have been closed to save the cost of foreign currency. Import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the spot market has also been stopped due to increase in price in the international market. As a result, electricity generation has decreased by more than two thousand megawatts.
An official of BPDB said that an hour's load shedding saves 976 megawatts of electricity. So it is not possible to meet the power shortage by one hour of load shedding. On an average load shedding for more than two hours was necessary to meet this deficit of electricity.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Friday told reporters that currently, load shedding is occurring at 1500-2000MW on an average per day. This situation is temporary. We are looking for fuel at a low price in the international market. A new plan about the load shedding would be taken after monitoring for a week.
The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) allegedly cuts power supply without any prior announcement, they reported. In such a situation, the unorganised load shedding disrupts people's normal life and business activities. Older people and infants are falling sick because of the sweltering heat.
On Tuesday, the maximum electricity supply was 13,200MW while the demand was above 14,000MW, which means the country was under load shedding for 800MW.
Abdun Nur, a resident of Bogra said that load shedding happens several times in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. They are facing load shedding for 6-7 hours on an average.
DPDC Managing Director Bikash Dewan and DESCO Managing Director Amir Kawsar Ali also admitted that there has been some disruption in the routine. They said that due to less supply of electricity, they had to do it out of routine.
The country's largest power distribution company Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (REB) has been hit the hardest. They have to do load shedding for hours in many areas. Customers outside Dhaka are suffering more.
BREB supplies about 55 percent of the country's electricity. However, BREB has been getting less electricity for several days. The organisation has about 32.5 million (3.25 crore) out of 42.5 million (4.25 crore) subscribers enjoying electricity and they distribute electricity through 80 Palli Bidyut Samities.
According to BREB sources, the situation got a bit worse in the neighbouring areas of Dhaka and the districts of Mymensingh and Rangpur zones since Palli Bidyut Samity of these areas received very low supply of electricity compared to the demand, resulting in power outages for hour after hour.