Loadshedding till Apr 15 likely

Average loadshedding during this period was officially 50 megawatt (mw) daily, officials said. But the figure would be several times higher, sources said.

Power situation in Chittagong took a serious turn on Thursday when 360 mw Meghnaghat Power Plant tripped due to technical fault causing a loadshedding of 900 mw as against the demand of 3500 mw in the country.

On the day, Chittagong faced a loadshedding of 210 mw as against its demand of around 465 mw, PDB sources said.

It forced the port city to suffer power outage of four to five hours with an average loadshedding of 200 mw till the power generation resumed at Meghnaghat station in the early hours of Sunday.

Loadshedding on an average in Chittagong is around 100 mw daily.

Loadshedding is mainly due to suspension of power generation at one of the two units of 420 mw Raozan Power Plant, Power Development Board (PDB) sources said.

Chittagong has been under the grip of acute power crisis when the Raozan Power Plant suspended power generation from its 21mw No-2 unit in January for scheduled overhauling.

It forced the total power generation in Chittagong to come down to some 220, less than half of the daily need here.

According to sources, some 630 mw power is generated here when all the power plants - Raozan Power Plant, Kaptai Hydro-electric Power Plant and Shikolbaha Power Plant- are in full operation.

Power generation at two units of Kaptai Power Plant remained suspended since they developed technical faults in July and August last year. It reduced the power generation here by some 80 mw.

The other three units were generating power bellow their capacity due to fall in the water level at Kaptai Lake. The "curve role" of water at Kaptai at present came down to around 85 Mean Sea Level (MSL) against the minimum requirement of 90 MSL, sources said.

At present around 100 mw power was available from Kaptai plant while 40 mw was coming Shikolbaha and some 110 mw from Raozan unit No. 1 daily.

As such the total power generation here at present is 250 mw, but 220 mw hardly reaches the consumers due to system (technical) loss, sources said.

A portion of the shortage is being met from the national grid while the rest forced an average loadshedding of some 100 mw everyday, says a PDB official preferring anonymity.

Chief Engineer Liaqat Hossain Barobhuiyan said, "We are in a shortfall of production to go for the loadshedding. It is likely to continue till mid April."

"Until then we have to depend on the supply from the national grid," Barobhuiyan said.