Load-shedding rewrites record every day

Highlights

• Load-shedding peaked at 3,266MW late Tuesday night
• On Monday, load-shedding was 3,215MW
• Country forced to lower power supply for 114 days in Jan-May this year
• Authorities trying to improve production by bringing plants preparing for test operations
• Furnace oil-based plants running at half or partial capacity due to fuel shortage

As scorching summer heat continues to rage across the country with mercury rising to 38 degrees or more, load-shedding is also making new records every day.

Consumers across the country might have experienced their hottest hours at home midnight past Tuesday as the nationwide load-shedding reached its peak of 3,266MW at 1am.

This was the record load shedding this year following the closure of the country's biggest coal-based power plants over fuel shortage.

Day before Tuesday, the maximum load shedding was 3,215MW, when one unit of the Payra 1,320MW Thermal Power Plant supplied electricity for half of the day before it closed.

Bangladesh has been forced to lower electricity supply for 114 days in the first five months of this year, which was 113 days in all of 2022, reports Reuters.

The power supply authorities, however, tried to improve the production by bringing plants that were preparing for test operations.

As part of the hard efforts, the Bangladesh Power Development Board started to receive electricity from S Alam Group's Banshkhali 1,320MW (SSPL) Coal Power Plant, which has yet to complete its test run and power supply reliability test, a precondition for starting power supply commercially.

SM Wazed Ali Sardar, member (Generation) at the Bangladesh Power Development Board, said they are taking electricity from the Banshkhali plant as part of its testing operation.

"We are receiving around 300MW now [5pm on Wednesday], and hope the amount will go up by night," he said.

"Besides, we are trying to improve the electricity supply by running more furnace oil-based plants and electricity from Adani Group's Godda 1,600MW Thermal Power Plant," he added.

The Banshkhali plant authorities are expecting that the production could reach 480MW by the last week of this month.

Md Faizur Rahman, deputy project director of the plant, said shipments with 60,000 tonnes of coal from Indonesia are scheduled to reach by 13 June.

"The plant would be able to supply around 600MW electricity then," he added.

Furnace oil-based plants run short of fuel

Meanwhile, furnace oil-based plants might not help the Bangladesh Power Development Board's plan as most of the plants are currently running at half or partial capacity due to fuel shortage.

On Thursday, 28 out of 64 furnace oil-based plants were running at partial capacity due to fuel shortage, according to data from the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.

Currently, there is a shortage of above 3,000MW each day. If the power plant owners are asked to fill in the shortage with furnace oil-based plants, they would not be able to run plants for more than 15 days, said sources at the Bangladesh Independent Power Producers Association.

Faisal Khan, president of the Association, told The Business Standard, "We are trying our best to import HFO to support the power system. We hope to receive more bills in the next few days and improve the situation."

As of May, the Bangladesh Power Development Board owed independent power producers around Tk26,000 crore.