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Chattogram’s daily power demand usually fluctuates between 1,500 MW and 1,600 MW. On Sunday at 7:00pm, peak demand rose to 1,621.40 MW, but the city received 1,528.90 MW from the grid.

“We faced a deficit of 92.50 MW at that hour, leaving us with no option but to cut power,” Hossain said.

Documents obtained by The Daily Star, however, show that the Chattogram region generates far more electricity than it consumes.

On Sunday evening, 17 of the region’s 28 power plants were operational, jointly supplying 2,987.40 MW to the national grid during peak hours and 2,405.87 MW during morning off-peak hours.

The documents show that 11 power plants in the region were idle on Sunday. Among them, two of the five units at the Kaptai Hydroelectric Power Plant were shut due to low water levels in Kaptai Lake, while both units of the Raozan Thermal Power Plant were out of commission due to a severe fuel shortage, PDB sources said.

Contacted, Kamal Uddin, chief engineer (distribution) of PDB, Chattogram, said, “The electricity generated by local power plants goes directly into the national grid, from which a part of it is allocated back to us.”

“If the national grid’s transmission to Chattogram falls short of local demand, we have to enforce load shedding,” he added.