Many areas in the central part of the Dhaka city is still experiencing heavy load shedding as the authorities concerned has not yet been able to repair the
burnt equipment at the 132kV Dhanmondi grid substation.
Some equipment of one of the three transformers at the city’s main power centre got burnt in a fire at 8:15am on Monday, leading to an eight-hour blackout over a vast area.
All the three transformers at the grid substation had to be shut down following the fire incident.
Later, the engineers of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd, which controls the central part of the city, succeeded to restore the power supply by resuming operation of the two transformers. But they failed to repair the affected transformer.
‘Despite our frantic effort, we still could not be able to repair the transformer affected by the fire,’ DPDC director (engineering) Mizanur Rahman told the news agency.
‘We’re hopeful of completing the repair work by Saturday next,’ he said.
Mizanur Rahman informed that the central part of the city has been experiencing some load shedding due to non-operation of that affected transformer.
Official sources said that following the fire incident, the central part of the city has been experiencing about 30MW load shedding in the day time while the extent of power-cut reaches 60MW in the peak hours at night.
The areas which face blackout for 5-6 hours a day include Shahbagh, Dhanmondi, Rayerbazar, Hatirpul, Farmgate, New Market, Bangladesh Secretariat, Jatiya Press Club, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka University and Segunbagicha.
The officials, however, claimed that the other areas in the city are quite free from planned load shedding as the DPDC is receiving adequate supply of power against its demand for 1100MW.
‘Maybe, some areas experience load shedding for local fault, not for shortage of power supply,’ a DPDC official said.
The whole capital city from Narayanganj to Saver needs 2200MW of power to meet the full demand.
The two organizations — DPDC and DESCO — operate the power supply system of the capital dividing Dhaka City in two separate areas.
-With New Age input
