Power generation hits record amid reports of outages

Amid reports of outages in parts of Bangladesh, the Power Development Board or PDB says electricity generation touched a new high on Saturday.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 28 May 2017, 09:28 AM
Updated : 28 May 2017, 09:45 AM

PDB spokesperson Saiful Hasan Chowdhury said the power plants fed the national grid 9,471 megawatts at 10pm on Saturday.

"Power generation stood at 9,356MW around 9pm, breaking the previous record. An hour later, it surpassed that record too," Chowdhury, PDB’s director for public relations, told bdnews24.com on Sunday.

On Jun 30 last year, Bangladesh crossed the 9,000MW mark for the first time in history, generating 9,036MW that day.

Power generation had been rising steadily for quite some time now. With the summer heat rising, the majority of towns and cities, including Dhaka, are suffering frequent power cuts.

On May 1, at least 32 districts in the northern and southern regions of the country were left without electricity for hours as one of the transmission lines of the national grid tripped during repairs of another line damaged by a powerful storm.

In the third week of May, the power crisis worsened after several plants stopped working due to technical glitches.

The intolerable temperature and a long spell of power outages every day during the season’s third heatwave have battered public life.

State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid, however, told the media on Friday that the power crunch was 'normal' and supply would improve.

Projected demand for power on Saturday was 9,800MW, which was 329MW higher than what was actually generated, according to the PDB’s website.

Until Sunday noon, no data on how much power load had to be shared to bridge the gap was available on the website.

Officials say Bangladesh’s power generation capacity tripled in the last eight years but demand outpaced supply. During summer, there's often a gap between demand and supply.

The number of power plants increased to 108 from 27 in 2009, when the Awami League-led government took over.

Power generation capacity has increased to 15,351MW from 4,942 over the same period.

Around 80 percent of the population is now under grid-coverage, up from 47 percent in 2009, according to government data.