Load

Sep 14, 2023

Representational image.

Bangladesh officially recorded a 2,925MW electricity shortage at 12:00am on May 13, setting a new record for load shedding, with 64 per cent of the country's total power plants remaining partially or completely out of order.

Official data released by the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh showed the generation of 10,637MW of electricity against the demand for 13,700MW from a power fleet with an installed capacity of 23,332MW, excluding captive power capacity.

At 5:00pm on April 15, load shedding surpassed the previous record of 2,506 MW.

While many of the power plants could not be used or were only partially used because of fuel shortages for about a year, the suspension of liquefied natural gas supply from floating LNG terminals since May 12 further worsened the situation.

One of the two floating LNG terminals was affected by severe cyclone Mocha on Sunday, giving rise to the fears that the ongoing power crisis will persist for a while.

Mocha mainly affected St. Martin's Island, Cox's Bazar's Teknaf, and Ukhia, and the overall damage caused in the power sector could not immediately be known.

‘One of the floating LNG terminals will be back in operation in two days,’ state minister for power, energy, and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid was heard saying in a video posted on the official Facebook page of the ministry at around 2:30pm.

But the other LNG terminal affected by the cyclone might take 15 days to put back into operation, he said.

‘The power crisis is likely to continue as long as full LNG supply is not restored,’ Power Development Board member SM Wazed Ali told New Age.

The severe cyclonic storm Mocha hit Bangladesh on Sunday with a sustained speed of 215km with liquefied natural gas supplies remaining suspended since 11:00pm on May 12.

On May 13, the PGCB recorded 2,000MW of electricity shortages during most of the day, leading to power cuts every alternate hour, even in the capital.

At noon on May 14, when Mocha was moving onto land, 2226MW load shedding was recorded with the generation of 9,774MW against the demand of 12,000MW, said the PDB.

‘The LNG supply disruption came on top of the energy crisis, sending more power plants out of operation,’ said Yeakub Elahi Chowdhury, managing director, PGCB.

The electricity shortage is 20 per cent of the demand, he said, adding that the overall load shedding figure might represent the highest figure so far, but in ratio to demand, it is far less than what Bangladesh used to have before the incumbent government came to power.

Bangladesh produced only 60 per cent of demand about a decade ago, he said.

On October 8, 2022, Bangladesh recorded 2,108 MW of load shedding, which was the highest load shedding until 2022, except for the national grid failure in the same month.

On Sunday, 99 out of 154 power plants remained partially or completely out of operation.

The disruption in the operation of such an overwhelming number of power plants reflects energy experts’ concern about power sector planning.

Many of the power plants were long affected by the energy crisis because Bangladesh was overwhelmingly dependent on imports, which experts warned were highly vulnerable to shocks such as high prices and natural disasters.

The gas supply disruption also caused immense suffering for households, resulting in almost zero flow in the piped gas supply in many places in Dhaka and Chattogram.

Bangladesh also could not manage enough coal to run its base-load coal-fired power plants, such as the 1,320MW Rampal plant and 307MW Barishal power plant.

The 1320MW coal-fired Payra power plant is facing the threat of a shutdown in a week because of the coal crisis due to the dollar shortage.

Idle power plants are mounting a financial burden on Bangladesh by generating huge capacity charges, a payment introduced under contract to ensure profit for private power sector investors.

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