The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The country will have to experience power shortage for three more days, as the power generation, its supply and distribution systems are still disrupted after the National Power Grid (NPG) tripped following cyclone SIDR Thursday night, Bangladesh Power Development (PDB) sources said.

Due to the power crisis people's sufferings mounted as it prompted water crisis and disruption in communication systems, including mobile phone, telephone, television and internet connections.

Transportation system was also affected, as the pump stations remained closed due to power failure.

PDB official sources said, after the NPG failure, they could generate the highest 2,008 megawatt (MW), half of the expected total generation capacity of 4,000 MW, while the demand is 5,200 MW. PDB's target was to generate 2,900 MW power by Sunday morning.

Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA) sources said it was given the highest 900 MW power last night against its demand of 1,600 MW.

PDB officials said during the NPG failure, its power generation capacity was zero watt. They could generate highest 760 MW till 9:00pm on Friday, 1540 MW in the morning on Saturday and 2008 MW in the evening.

According to sources, many of the power plants could not be put into operation, while several others could not generate power according to their capacities.

An engineer of the PDB said most of the Independent Power Plants (IPP), non-government power plants, including 370-MW Haripur and Baghabari power plant, could not operate. Besides, several others could not generate power according to their capacities.

DESA official sources said it was given a total of 550 MW during daytime on Saturday and 900 MW at night. Although it was too little compared to the demand, it had to distribute this power to its 34 divisions, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) and Rural Electrification Board (REB). The REB in Dhaka also distributes power to nearby Gazipur, Joydevpur and other adjoining areas.

PDB officials said as the supply and distribution system are damaged, they had fixed the target to generate power around 3,000 MW. The most damaged areas are South and Southwestern zones of the country.

Due to the power disruption, water crisis in the city as well as the other urban areas in the country was severe. Most of the residential areas remained without water, as the Water and Sewerage Authority could not supply water.

Communication networks and systems were affected, as thousands of electric and telephone poles and towers across the country, mostly in the coastline areas, were uprooted. Electric, telephone, dish and internet lines were torn apart disconnecting all kinds of communications.

Pump stations and CNG stations remained closed due to the power crisis. Hundreds of thousands of motorised vehicles had to remain stranded on queues for hours on Friday and Saturday.