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Electricity demand is lower on weekends than other days. On Saturday, the day started with load shedding of 1,636 MW to meet the power demand of 14,100 MW. However, the amount of load shedding may exceed 2000 MW this week.
This load-shedding starts from 1 am on Saturday (April 6), when power demand is always very low.
According to the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) statistics, 12,387 MW of electricity has been generated in the country till 1 am on Saturday morning.
Another data shows that 12,670 MW of electricity was produced in the country against the demand of 14,000 MW at 12 noon on Saturday. The peak demand is 15,300 MW in the evening and 13,400 MW during the peak hours of the day.
Officials fear that loadshedding will increase and the power supply situation will worsen as the days progress in the scorching summer heat.
Most of the rural areas have suffered from power outages as the concerned authorities have followed a policy to avoid load shedding in urban areas including Dhaka. Officials said this is being done to avoid public outrage. In the previous week i.e. Thursday, the maximum load shedding of 1,824 MW was recorded on the last working day.
A senior official of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) said that the amount of load shedding may exceed two thousand megawatts this week.
The peak generation on Friday was 12,401 MW during the day and 14,245 MW during the evening peak hour. BPDB officials feel that there is no possibility of improvement in the situation until gas supply to the power plants is increased.
He said that due to the gas crisis, several power plants with a power generation capacity of about 3000 megawatts have become inactive.
Summit Group's LNG terminal failed to start operations as scheduled on April 3, state-owned Petrobangla officials said.
Director (Operation and Mining) M Kamruzzaman said, Now we hope it can be operational on April 8 and resume operations.
He also said that once Summit's LNG terminal reopens, 500 million cubic feet of gas will be added to the national grid daily. The regular maintenance operation of the LNG terminal started in the first week of March this year.
According to Petrobangla statistics, gas supply in the country was 2,640 MMcfd against the demand of more than 4,000 MMcfd on Thursday. Source: UNB
Bangladesh /FM
