Load Shedding of Electricity in Bangladesh, people want govt action immediately

Rahela Begum, housewife of Bizli Moholla very anxiously seating
infront of her twochild's reading teble while electricity has gone

Bangladesh faces one of the worst power crises of the world. The total demand for electricity in the country is in fact less than the demand of a medium sized city in Europe. Still, due to lack of planned investment in the power sector, load shedding has become the flagship phenomenon of the country's electricity system. Unplanned urbanization and excessive system loss has compounded the problems. Some parts of the capital city of Dhaka may face black outs for more than 10 hours a day during the very hot summer. The power shortage eventually leads to the failure of water supply. Most citizens have to face a miserable life with little water and no electricity under the scorching tropical heat. Smaller cities and the countrysides of Bangladesh face a worse situation. Many villages of this low lying country are not yet electrified. However, the electrified villages get the real supply of electricity seldom more than 6 hours in each 24 hour span. There are no significant power station projects in the pipeline and the situation is going to get worse in the coming years.

Dhaka city is facing huge load shedding of electricity. Almost all part of Dhaka having load shedding of electricity everyday at least four to five hours eveyday. In Karwan Bazar, power disruption occurred five times with more than five hours of outage between 8:00am and 5:00pm and in 24 hours almost eight to nine hours. Multiple power cuts for periods totaling six to seven hours occurred in Eskaton Garden, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Moghbazar, Khilgaon, Goran, Shahjahanpur, Mohammadpur, Banani, Uttara and other places.

Every summer Bangladesh face huge load shedding problem. According to the official statistics, the country’s electricity shortage gone up 1000 megawatts (MW) to 1259 MW with the demand of 4806 MW on 2006. Authority said this year (2009) about 1400 MW to 1800 MW electricity shortage will face this year, which is almost twice more than last year and the country need about 5000 MW. So this summer we might face the problem that’s we have not face last ten years. In Bangladesh electricity power is not generate as much as our demand. So every summer we face huge load shedding and people are suffering, but in winter there is almost not load shedding. In summer temperatures goes up to around 40° Celsius. So in this situation if there is load-shedding of electricity people face uncertain condition.

Power Development Board (PDB) sources said while the official power demand was just 5000MW, the unofficial demand was hovering around 6000 MW. The officially estimated power demand is 5000 MW against a generation of around 3500 MW. Around 1500 MW power could not be generated due to short supply of gas to many power plants. Gas is a major concern also because several new gas-fired power plants with nearly 1000 MW generation capacity are expected to be drafted into service this year. “We are expecting 200MW new power generation from May. If we cannot ensure the gas supplies, it will become meaningless” PDB pointed out.

A PDB official said the real power situation was worse than the official picture. “The Rural Electrification Board (REB) needs 2500 MW, but is given less than half of that. Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) need more than 2000 MW power and the PDB needs another 2000 MW,” he added.

On 2007 government said by 2010 Bangladesh will be a load shedding free country. “We have set a target to generate sufficient electricity by the year 2010 to reach a level where there will be no load shedding,” said Mirza Azizul Islam, finance and planning adviser. But we don’t see any result of it day by day the rate of load shedding is increasing.