A technical glitch at Bheramara, which is also the point from where imported power from neighbouring India is being pumped into the national grid, is reported to have caused Bangladesh's worst blackout ever. Now that the country has experienced one such power outage, there is a need for a thorough assessment of the management of the system.
As several initial findings say that abject lack of good governance in power management was at the root of the disaster. There is no contingency plan in place nor is there any alternative arrangement to avoid such technical faults. What is really shocking is that the people, who preside over the management of the power sector and love to bask in the glory over the sharp rise in power generation, simply forgot what was to do in case of a grid failure. Unfortunate too is complete failure of the authorities to insure Dhaka, the national capital, against such a grave power disruption. This surely does not brighten the image of the country in the eyes of the international community.
Bangladesh's plight on Saturday reminded one British comedian Spike Milligan's joke: "And God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light, but the Electricity Board said He would have to wait until Thursday to be connected." The country had to wait from 11-30 am until 10-30 pm for the resumption of electricity and suffer the heavy cost of total power failure across the country. In millions of homes, water became extremely scarce as it could not be collected by electricity-powered generators. Thousands of patients suffered immensely and the condition of the critically sick became even worse. Mills and factories had to down their shutters. Cell-phones, now an item of common man's use, died as there was no scope for charging batteries. Luckily, robbers and criminals did not take advantage of the total darkness, an ideal condition for them as only ten minutes' power blackout let a hell broken loose in American cities not long ago.
The government has ordered a probe into the grave power glitch. An expert said, for a 450MW power transmission loss from India, power generation plants must not have gone out of production. There are technologies to deal with such glitches. It is time for the authorities to plug all holes so that no more such disaster is repeated in the days ahead. Also needed is a fool-proof arrangement for round-the-clock power supply in the Bangladesh capital even in times of genuinely difficult technical situation in the national grid. We need to build trouble-shooting capacity at the earliest.
There is a precious lesson for the power authorities: eat what your stomach can bear. As Bangladesh is considering to import power from Nepal and Bhutan also, arrangements must be made to see that such power can readily and without hassle be pumped into the national grid. If the country does not have the appropriate technology to handle such volume of electricity, it can seek international help in this regard.
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