Staff Correspondent

Despite lower electricity demand on the weekly holiday on Saturday than any working day, the day started with a load shedding of 1,636 MW to serve a demand of 14,100 MW.

These power cuts started at 1 am when electricity demand always remains very low.

Official statistics of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) reveal that the country was generating 12,387 MW in the early hours of Saturday (at 1 am).

The PGCB data shows that the country generated 12,670 MW at noon against a demand for 14,000 MW on Saturday. The highest demand is projected to be 15,300 MW in the evening peak hours and 13,400 MW in the day peak time.

Officials apprehend, that with the day progressing amid the sweltering heat of summer, the extent of load shedding will increase and the power supply situation will aggravate further.

Mostly rural areas have been the victims of the power cuts as the authorities concerned are pursuing a policy to avoid the load shedding in urban areas, mostly in large cities, including the capital Dhaka. This is being done to avoid public wrath, said the officials.

In the previous week, the last working day on Thursday, the highest load shedding was recorded to be 1,824 MW.
“This week, the extent of load shedding may cross 2,000 MW,” said a senior official at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

On Friday, the highest generation was 12,401 MW in the daytime and 14245 MW in the evening peak hours.

BPDB officials noted that the situation is unlikely to improve until the gas supply is increased to the power plants.

He informed that a good number of power plants having about 3000 MW of electricity generation capacity remained out of operation due to gas shortage.

Meanwhile, officials of the state-owned Petrobangla said that the Summit Group’s LNG terminal failed to resume operation on April 3 as per schedule.

“Now, we hope, it may be able to commission and resume operation on April 8,” M Kamruzzaman, director (of operation and mining) told UNB.

He also informed that if Summit's LNG terminal resumes operation, it will add 500 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) gas to the national grid. The LNG terminal went into routine maintenance in the first week of March this year.

Petrobangla statistics show the country's gas supply was 2,640 MMCFD on Thursday against the demand for more than 4,000 MMCFD.