The New Nation - Internet Edition

Shamim Jahangir

The city residents have experienced 600 MW power shortages on the first day of Ramzan.

Several residents of the city expressed dissatisfaction with the power cut during Ifter and Sehri yesterday.

Earlier, the ministry had already directed the electricity generation units to keep those fully operational during the holy month, and keep electricity supply at the highest level from 6:00pm through 9:00pm for Iftar and Tarabih prayers and from 3:00am to 5:00am for Sehri.

Power Development Board (PDB) has failed to supply 600 MW of power against the demand of 4,400 MW during Ramzan due to shortage of gas supply to the power plants, according to PDB sources.

At present, the peak demand exceeds 4,400 MW, whereas, generation varies from 3,500 MW to 3,800 MW leaving an unmet demand of 600 MW to 900 MW in the last two days due to gas shortage. For this reason, residents in different parts of the country experienced an 8 to 12-hour power outage, sources said.

"Now many of the PDB power units are generating less electricity because of gas shortage and some of the units have remained switched off. The PDB could not generate around 712 MW of electricity yesterday because of gas shortage," the sources added.

Power officials demanded gas supply of more than 700 to 750 mmcfd to increase power generation to keep outage within a tolerable level during Ramzan. The demand for gas for power plants is around 850mmcfd, the sources said.

The residents of Rampura, Jatrabai, Mohammadpur have experienced power cut during Sehri time. Besides, the residents of Banasri, Uttara Syadabad have faced power cut during Ifter period yesterday.

Habiba Mamun, an angry resident of Banasree residential area expressed her dissatisfaction over the power cut during Ifter time yesterday and said, "I cannot understand why the power division couldn't keep up to their promise of supplying uninterrupted electricity."

She called upon the Government to take effective measure to supply power during Ifter, Sehri and Tarabi for the rest of the holy month of Ramzan.