Shawdesh dEsk:

Bangladesh continued to experience record load-shedding, with the third-highest-ever electricity shortage of 2,837MW recorded on Tuesday despite an increase in gas supply compared with the day before.

The three highest load-shedding in the country’s history were recorded over the past three days, with the highest of 2,925 MW recorded on Sunday.

At 4:00pm on Monday, the Power Development Board produced 10,129MW against 13,100MW demand.

With an installed capacity of 23,332MW, Bangladesh produced about 11,000MW or 47 per cent of the installed capacity in four hours on Monday.

Electricity production remained below 10,000MW, which is about 40 per cent of the installed capacity, for 14 hours on Monday.

‘I sleep on the floor for hours at night,’ Mohammad Moniruzzaman, a resident of Mirpur, told New Age.

Dhaka residents find it difficult to stay in bed during power cuts, which occur more frequently than ever, almost every other hour.

The power shortage became so acute that even posh areas such as Gulshan and Dhaka cantonment experienced more than an hour of load-shedding on Tuesday, according to PDB officials.

‘We have 300MW of load-shedding,’ said Kausar Ameer Ali, managing director of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited.

DESCO’s power shortage accounts for more than 25 per cent of its demand.

Bangladesh has officially lived with load-shedding since July 2022, after the government shut down its diesel-based power plants, citing high prices.

Load-shedding struck even in winter, as the high price in international market prevented the government from running gas-based power plants.

The coal power plants that the government highlighted as the remedy to price shocks could not resolve the fuel crisis either.

Base load coal power plants such as the 1,320MW Rampal power plant remain out of operation.

Almost half of Bangladesh’s current power generation capacity depends on gas. Gas accounts for 60 per cent of Bangladesh’s primary energy needs.

Bangladesh has 30 per cent of its power generation capacity reliant on oil, which the country finds very expensive to buy.

The country cannot buy coal either, which accounts for 11 per cent of its current power generation capacity, due to dollar shortages.

Officials at the PGCB said that the power crisis was unlikely to end in 10 days.

The power shortage problem turned acute after Mocha affected one of the two liquefied natural gas terminals in the Bay of Bengal, which is still out of operation.

LNG supply disruption affected industries and households as pipe gas pressure dropped to almost zero.

The disruption outraged Chattogram residents because their major gas supply came from LNG.

The power and gas crises came as a shock to consumers, who saw energy prices go up several times over the past two years, eventually leading to high inflation.

A heatwave swept five districts – Rajshahi, Naogaon, Moulvibazar, Jashore, and Kushtia – with the country’s highest day temperature of 38.3C recorded in Rajshahi.

Dhaka saw its maximum day temperature stay at 35.2C on Tuesday.