The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The government-formed investigation committee found lack of coordination between the central load-dispatch centre (CLDC) and the power substations as the prime reason behind the countrywide blackout on November 15 when the cyclone Sidr struck the country's coast.

Chairman of the committee ANM Rizwan disclosed the findings during a press briefing at the Power Ministry Tuesday after he handed over the probe report to Power Secretary Dr. M Fozul Kabir Khan.

The Power Secretary said this committee would also investigate the latest blackout incident on December 15 and it was asked to submit report within three weeks.

The probe-body chairman said it was found in the investigation that at the distribution end, some of the substations were not following the instructions of the CLDC. And the mismatch led to a sudden rise in the demand, making the whole system collapse under the pressure on November 15 in the wake of devastation by the cyclone.

Rizwan, the former chairman of PDB and former managing director of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), however, said, "The officials frantically helped the system survive though they didn't have such an experience to tackle the situation when a heavy cyclone hit the power infrastructure."

He said as the cyclone hit the country, the electricity feeder lines collapsed colossally and power stations faced forced shutdowns consecutively and the electricity demand fell down drastically to 350 MW, a tenth of the total generation.

"But, after the cyclone passed away, in the morning, the demand started rising sharply within a very short time, which the CLCD officials failed to control, because the substations' officials did not abide by their instructions. And it finally triggered a collapse of the whole power system," said Rizwan, who led the probe as grid and transmission exert.

He said the committee recommended installation of "state of the art" ICT-based equipment and mechanisms at the central load-dispatch centre (CLDC) to make the whole controlling system computerized.

"We put forward 50 recommendations, which are short and long-term ones… steps need to be taken to implement those immediately to avert any such further incident," he said.

About the December 15 nationwide grid failure, the expert dispelled the myth that it's a dove that wrecked the national power grid and plunged the country' in the dark.

"It's a remote possibility that a bird could cause such incident," he said.

Power Secretary Fouzul Kabir Khan said he is yet to go through the whole report. "But after studying the report, we'll take follow-up actions."

He said the report would be placed before the chief advisor of the caretaker government for consideration at the highest level.