Shawdesh Desk:

When the country’s overall electricity demand dropped to 8,200 megawatt during a national holiday when all the offices, industries and establishments are closed on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, three large power plants announced the start of operations of their three generation units.

These are—second unit (660 MW) of Rampal power plant, second unit of (800 MW) of Adani Power Plant in India and first unit (612 MW) of S Alam’s SS Power plant in Banskhali in Chattogram.

Normally, the demand for electricity in Bangladesh is 12,000 MW at day peak time and goes up to 16,000 MW during peak hours in the evening.

The National Load Dispatch Centre data shows both the demand and supply was 7,917 MW at 12 noon on Wednesday when there was no official power cut.

‘The demand may go up to 9,000 MW’, said a top official of the Bangladesh Power Development Board.

He said that both relatively rain-driven calm weather and closure of offices, industries and commercial establishments led to this drastic fall in electricity demands in the country.

In such a relatively much lower demand situation, the three new units have added electricity to the national grid.

Of these, Adani Group has already announced the commercial operation date (COD) of second unit of its 1600 MW Godda power plant on June 26, exclusively set up in Jharkhand in India to supply electricity to Bangladesh.

‘Today (Wednesday), the second unit of Rampal 1320 MW (660X2) was synchronised with national grid at 8:51 am’, Shamim Hasan, director public relation of BPDB, said in a text message.

The Alam Group in a press release said its SS Power Plant will begin supplying electricity again today (Wednesday, June 28) at 2 a.m. on an experimental basis, despite the official inauguration being scheduled after Eid-ul-Adha.

Electricity equivalent to a maximum of 612 MW as per demand will be supplied experimentally every day.

This decision has been made in response to the public’s demand for electricity and with the aim of addressing the national power crisis.

The SS Power authority is optimistic that this timely initiative will effectively contribute to resolving the power shortage in the country.

With its experimental run of power supply, the SS Power Plant is anticipated to have a significant impact on stabilising the national grid and alleviating the negative consequences of power outages.

Additionally, the plant is dedicated to meeting the energy requirements of the nation with utmost determination, aiming to provide uninterrupted power supply for the country’s economic growth, industrial operations, and the everyday lives of its people.

Md Ebadat Hossain Bhuiyan, chief financial officer, SS Power Plant, said, although the official inauguration of the power plant is scheduled to be held after Eid-Ul-Adha, they have decided to resume supplying power to the national grid on an experimental basis, considering the national interest and the demand of the public.

‘We are expecting that the power plant will commence full-fledged electricity supply to the people of the country next month, in accordance with our scheduled inauguration plan.’

Due to the global crisis of the US dollar and energy, several power plants in Bangladesh have faced disruptions in production.

That is why load shedding has affected people’s daily life. In this circumstance, electricity supply from one of the two units of the SS Power Plant to the national grid started on May 24.

After the successful completion of the experimental power supply process, the power plant was temporarily shut down on June 8 as planned, and the commissioning process started, the S Alam Group said.