Power outages in Bangladesh affect industrial output

Fibre2Fashion: In spite of public and private producers in Bangladesh generating ample power, all parts of the country are now witnessing power outages amid a severe heatwave, affecting domestic users, industrial output, and irrigation.

After a record generation of more than 15,300 MW, the overall power generation declined to below 15,000 MW on April 15 as the 660-MW first unit of the Rampal Bangladesh-India Maitree power plant shut down. The country faced a load-shedding of 2,500 megawatts (MW) during the daytime on that day, while the shortage during the night was 950 MW, media outlets from the country reported.

Meanwhile, the total power supply across the country on April 15 was 13,969 MW against a demand of 15,500 MW. The supply was 100 MW higher compared to the same day last year.

Despite having the capacity to generate adequate power, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has failed to meet the demand, induced by heatwave and irrigation needs, due to a liquidity crunch that has obstructed it to use the furnace oil-based private power plants, a business daily reported.

BPDB, however, could generate the minimum needed electricity due to the downward price of liquified natural gas and newly added coal-based plants, else the load-shedding situation would have been worse.

Liquidity crunch and disputes over payments obstructed the private power producers to run their furnace oil-based plants at maximum capacity. Private power producers have yet to receive payments for last October.

Industrial production in Chattogram has been affected due to frequent load-shedding, while factory owners are trying to keep production running with generators, which would raise the production cost.

The efficiency of machinery is also affected due to load-shedding.