Power, gas shortages hit hard industries, SSC candidates
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
FE Report
Acute power and gas supply shortages with the onset of hot and humid days have started affecting industrial production and taking a severe toll on students appearing in the secondary school certificate (SSC) exams.
As fans and air coolers began to buzz in the offices and households with the advent of spring, power crisis has worsened across the country, leading to hours of load shedding during the day and night.
Officials said the situation has aggravated as the shortfall in generation of electricity jumped to 1020 megawatt (mw) Tuesday.
Overall load shedding rose to 725 mw on the day, leaving different parts of the country out of power, sources said.
In the capital, overall load shedding was 248 mw and it varied between 250 mw and 293 mw during peak hours in the evening.
The Power Development Board (PDB) produced highest 3730 mw of electricity against the total demand of 4600 mw.
PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir said gas supply shortage has lowered the electricity generation by nearly 800 mw to 1000 mw, which has aggravated the power crisis across country particularly in Dhaka city.
"Some of our power generation units have suspended production for weeks due to gas supply shortage. A few units are failing to give maximum output because of lower gas pressure in the distribution lines," he said.
Meanwhile, sources said, power generation in some power units of Rauzan, Ashuganj and Ghorashal was affected due to short supply of gas and technical faults.
The 360 mw Rauzan power plant has been closed down and production at Sikalbaha, Meghnaghat and RPCL was cut by 40 mw, 50 mw and 130 mw respectively.
At present, the PDB has a total of 16 gas-based power plants with the total installed generation capacity of about 4,000 mw daily. All these power plants combinedly consume 650 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd).
Acute power and gas supply shortages with the onset of hot and humid days have started affecting industrial production and taking a severe toll on students appearing in the secondary school certificate (SSC) exams.
As fans and air coolers began to buzz in the offices and households with the advent of spring, power crisis has worsened across the country, leading to hours of load shedding during the day and night.
Officials said the situation has aggravated as the shortfall in generation of electricity jumped to 1020 megawatt (mw) Tuesday.
Overall load shedding rose to 725 mw on the day, leaving different parts of the country out of power, sources said.
In the capital, overall load shedding was 248 mw and it varied between 250 mw and 293 mw during peak hours in the evening.
The Power Development Board (PDB) produced highest 3730 mw of electricity against the total demand of 4600 mw.
PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir said gas supply shortage has lowered the electricity generation by nearly 800 mw to 1000 mw, which has aggravated the power crisis across country particularly in Dhaka city.
"Some of our power generation units have suspended production for weeks due to gas supply shortage. A few units are failing to give maximum output because of lower gas pressure in the distribution lines," he said.
Meanwhile, sources said, power generation in some power units of Rauzan, Ashuganj and Ghorashal was affected due to short supply of gas and technical faults.
The 360 mw Rauzan power plant has been closed down and production at Sikalbaha, Meghnaghat and RPCL was cut by 40 mw, 50 mw and 130 mw respectively.
At present, the PDB has a total of 16 gas-based power plants with the total installed generation capacity of about 4,000 mw daily. All these power plants combinedly consume 650 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd).