Though it was the government’s utmost priority to ensure smooth supply of power to households and offices during the holy month of Ramzan, and the city dwellers are yet to be relieved of the power outages.
The power outages were almost common during the last 20 days of Ramzan in the city and elsewhere in the country especially during iftar and midnight due to excessive uses of power by the shops at different shopping malls, sources said.
The ‘indiscriminate uses’ of power by shopping malls contributed to loadshedding as they have started maintaining open till midnight ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, consuming huge electricity that resulted at a shortfall of power supplies to the households.
Though the owners in the shopping malls decided not to use half of their shops’ bulbs and air-conditioners (AC), but in fact, most of them were violating the decision for the periods between iftar and tarabi that led to an intermittent loadshedding.
If this trend going on then it may create about 2,000 MW loadshedding during the Eid.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is trying to mitigate the sufferings of ongoing power crisis. And so far there is no significant improvement since most of the equipment of power houses are years old, hampering power generation, sources said.
The power outage in the city and elsewhere in the country remains almost unchanged despite the diversion of gas from CNG stations and KAFCO Fertilizer Factory to the power generation houses.
As a result, the BPDB is forced to maintain loadshedding after regular interval of hours.
The loadshedding may prolong in the city in the next couple of days if the owners maintain illuminating of their respective markets to draw more customers during the ongoing Eid-ul- Fitr shopping, according to observers.
At present, the diesel and furnace oil-based power houses of BPDB are generating power during the pick hour. As a result, it has to incur about Tk 1,500 crore losses a year, sources said.
The target of generation of power was 4,547 MW yesterday against the total demand of 5,500 MW. The load shedding was 830 MW yesterday that was 867 MW on Monday, BPDB sources said.
The demand of power for Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) Ltd, Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) Ltd and Rural Electrification Board (REB) was around 2,000 MW against the total allocation of 1578 MW yesterday which was 1,592 MW on Monday, sources said.
The BPBD should replace its years old equipments by replacing modern ones as there is a big gap between the power demand and generation, a high official of the organistion told The New Nation yesterday.
Meanwhile, to relieve the people from the power crisis, the government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India on Monday in New Delhi over establishment of two 1,320 MW each thermal power projects in Chittagong and Khulna.
Besides, the government would soon finalise ‘Coal Policy’ with a view to reducing dependency on gas for power generation.
At present, about 90 per cent of electricity are being produced by the plants mainly dependent on diesel and gas.
“It is possible to generate 90 per cent of power by using coal. Government could not solve the power crisis alone rather it requires private initiatives for producing power,” said Major Gen (Retd) Subid Ali Bhuiyan, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. He said that government had a plan to import 500 MW power from India.
