Severe cyclone 'Remal' caused immense sufferings to the electricity consumers as power outages were frequent across the country on Monday.
More than 26.62 million people in the southern coastal areas were without power until Monday night, according to official information, while the people of the rest of the country, including capital Dhaka, witnessed frequent disruptions.
The Rural Electrification Board (REB) shut down electricity supply in most of the districts in the southeastern region1.
The overall electricity generation dipped to 4,890 MW on Monday afternoon, one-fifth of the country's total capacity of 26,354 MW, due to the severe cyclone.
State-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) brought down the power generation to one-third of Sunday afternoon's production at 13,726MW, according to official data of National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) of the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd (PGCB).
People across the country are still bearing the brunt of acute load-shedding, while businesses and commercial operations also faced disruptions in major parts of the country, said sources.
"We faced electricity outages several times with several hours of duration," said Riad Hasan, a Paltan resident.
The day-long rainfall in most areas across Bangladesh has worsened the sufferings of commoners. Most of the compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations were on and off several times amid frequent power outages. Sources said many hospitals across the country got affected and faced tremendous disruption due to power outages, triggering immense sufferings to the critical patients. Both indoor and outdoor patients also faced difficulties in the hospitals as the consequences.
Many business houses and shopping malls were forced to shut their operations due to the electricity outages. Many automated teller machines (ATMs) of different banks also went out of operation, sending the clients at bay.
The REB has estimated that 2,392 electric poles fell and 1,982 transformers under the REB's franchise areas in the southeastern region were damaged due to the cyclonic storm. Some 21,848 insulators broke, 46,318 electric meters went out of order and 62,454 incidents of snapping electric cables were registered under the REB areas. The REB has primarily estimated a loss worth Tk 912 million.
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification system brought back to normalcy with the re-gasification reaching to around 1,100 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), energy and mineral resources division of the MoPEMR said.
State-run Petrobangla had squeezed overall LNG re-gasification from the floating, storage, re-gasification units (FSRUs) to less than one-third to 320 mmcfd over the last couple of days to avoid any damage to the FSRUs and the mooring facility. Unlike the previous cyclone 'Mocha', the government high-ups and technical officials concerned have this time instructed the FSRUs to keep ties with the mooring facility, said the official.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
