Frequent Load Shedding Continues After Grid Restoration, Peaking at This Week's Highest 3,488 MW at 3 PM

After the failure in the national grid, the power supply situation has improved somewhat, but not all power plants have resumed operation yet. As a result, frequent load shedding is taking place in different areas of the capital. The power distribution companies said load shedding is being carried out to manage the power generation and supply situation.

According to Power Grid Bangladesh PLC (PGCB) sources, load shedding in the country stood at 3,154 megawatts at 2 pm, 3,488 megawatts at 3 pm and 2,356 megawatts at 4 pm on Tuesday (October 27). The 3 pm figure was the highest load shedding of this week.

Earlier, at 12:43 pm on Tuesday, electricity supply was cut off in the capital Dhaka and various other areas due to a fault in the Meghnaghat-Haripur national grid line. Supply was shut down in eastern Dhaka, including the Secretariat, the Power Building and the High Court, and in part of Chattogram.

PGCB later said the restoration work of the national grid was fully completed at 2:30 pm, when all grid lines and grid substations were brought into operation. However, the agency said the power plants would be restarted in phases. It also said load shedding would decrease as generation increased.

According to information citing sources at the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC), power generation in the country was 14,712 megawatts at noon on Tuesday. After the fault in the grid line, generation fell to 9,349 megawatts. At that time, power plants with a capacity of 5,370 megawatts shut down.

An official of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) said some power plants had shut down partially and some completely. He said that along with the Bibiyana and Summit power plants, two PDB plants had also shut down. It will take time to restart the closed plants.

As a result, even though the restoration of the national grid is complete, power generation has not fully returned to normal. For this reason, the situation is being managed through load shedding in different areas.

Residents of Moghbazar, Malibagh, Panthapath, Shantinagar and Green Road, among other areas of the capital, are suffering from frequent power cuts.

Nasima Akter, a resident of Shantinagar, said the power has been going off repeatedly since the afternoon. It comes back after a while and then goes off again; in this way there is no power for about an hour at a time. Nazmul Haque, a resident of Kathalbagan, made the same complaint. He said the power went off several times after the evening.