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City dwellers suffer as power outage getting worse

SABRINA KARIM MURSHED
Power outage has started creeping into the life of the city residents, although the hot days of summer are yet to come. The present situation indicates a severe power crisis in the coming months.
Due to the gap between power generation and demand that increases in every summer, the power supply authorities are being compelled to impose load shedding in different parts of the capital every day.
The Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Desa), Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco) and Rural Electrification Board (REB) are not getting enough supply from the national grid to meet the growing demand, sources said.
A high official of Desa said there was 200 megawatt shortage in electricity supply on February 10 that forced the supply companies to go for load-shedding -- 70mw in Desa area and 130mw in Desco and REB areas.
However, the deficit increases when power generation is disrupted due to shutdown of plants for mechanical reasons or shortage in gas
supply. Most of the power plants in Bangladesh use gas as fuel.
The country is facing a daily power load shedding of up to 750 megawatts due to a drop in gas pressure in the national grid and shut down of a major power plant.
Power Development Board (PDB) sources said that against a peak demand of 3550 megawatts (MW), the PDB is now able to generate only up to 2700 mw of power.
"We are already facing power cuts almost every day. God knows what will happen in the upcoming summer," said Tania Ahmed, a resident of Mirpur.
Like her, most of the people in the city are apprehending a worse situation in the coming days. And the electricity distribution authorities do not have any contingency plan to face the possible power crisis.
"Students are the major victims of regular loadshedding that usually takes place in the evening. Power outage is disrupting the preparation for SSC and HSC exams," said Alimul Haque, a student living in Moghbazar.
Desa officials admitted the shortage of supply that has affected the city. "There will be
a severe power crisis in the next summer," commented one of them. "This is because of generation shortfall and increased demand."
An official said mechanical troubles in the transmission and distribution system, old cables and poor infrastructure sometimes cause power outage but Desa has improved the system and infrastructure in the recent time.
A significant number of factory owners and businessmen have generators or captive power generation facility as the state-run electricity supply companies cannot ensure uninterrupted supply to their industrial units.
But a Desa official said most of them do not use generators and still depend on the supply from the state-run companies. The huge demand in these factories creates extra pressure on the national grid.
At present Desa has around 5,28,000 clients in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Tongi.
Almost 43 percent of them are domestic clients. The rest are industrial and commercial users, government offices and service sector.