-Clients are not getting electricity even half of 24 hours
-This situation going from last 24 June at midnight.
-Continuous load-shedding disrupts HSC examinee's studies.
Due to breakdown of one of the Payra Power Plant, power supply has been disrupted in Barishal for the past few days. Clients are not getting electricity even half of the time in 24 hours. In this situation, besides the general clients, the HSC examinees have suffered greatly.
This situation has been going on since the midnight of last June 24 in cities and villages everywhere. People's lives have become miserable due to hour-long load-shedding amid the ongoing scorching heat. Officials in charge of West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDC) Barishal grid station confirmed that the situation is unlikely to improve even in the next week.
According to sources, under WZPDC's Barishal grid station, Barishal district and Jhalkathi are getting a little more than half of the power supply against the demand. In this situation, load shedding is demanded at the rate of 20 percent, but in reality the load shedding is much higher, the consumers said.
Grid Station Executive Engineer Aktaruzzaman Palash said one of the two power plants in Payra is closed. A total of 1320 MW of electricity was produced from two to 660 MW. This electricity is supplied to some places including Barishal, Jhalkathi, and Gopalganj through the national grid.
He also said that due to the closure of one plant, the production of pigeons has reduced by half. For this, 450 to 500 MW is being supplied in Barishal against the demand of about 580 MW. He also mentioned that the damaged plant could be operational by 3-4 of next month.
Deepak Mistry, sub-divisional engineer of Barishal Power Sales and Distribution Center-1, said that the demand for electricity in Barishal, Jhalkathi and Nalchiti under their jurisdiction is 82 MW but the supply is 56 MW. Due to which, load shedding has to be given due to low availability of electricity.
Acting Executive Engineer of Barishal Electricity Sales and Distribution Center-2 Manjurul Islam said that in the last two days they have received more than half of the required electricity. It has been found that the last few days of extreme heat and load-shedding have led to public suffering. Especially, they have sleepless nights due to power cuts late at night.
According to Barishal Education Board sources, the HSC examination will start from tomorrow (Sunday). Due to continuous load-shedding, the studies of the examinees are severely disrupted. Most of the parents of the city said that the HSC candidates are in dire straits due to continuous load shedding day and night. The necessary preparation for the exam is being disrupted. The examinees are under stress due to intense heat on one hand and load shedding of electricity on the other.
WZPDC's Barishal Area Management and Conservation Circle Supervising Engineer Md Abdul Majeed said, our demand is 100 MW. I am getting 70 MW there. Consequently it has to be managed by load shedding. Similarly, in Bhola WZPDC and Palli Bidyut have a combined demand of 130 MW but 96 MW is available.
Md Yusuf, executive engineer of WZPDC Bhola said, "Earlier we used to get 40 megawatts of electricity from Quick Rental and 90 megawatts from the 225 megawatts gas-based generation plant of Borhanuddin Upazila. But, now there is a shortage of electricity due to the closure of Quick Rentals. As a result the situation is being handled by load shedding. The largest power generation center in the southern region is in Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali. Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited's (BCPCL) Payra 1320 MW coal-fired power plant went into production in March 2022. A unit of the center has been closed for routine maintenance since June 26. As a result, there has been a major shortfall in power generation. This has affected the supply chain.
Shah Moni Jiko, Assistant Manager (Investigation) of that center said, Payra power plant is a big project. These plants require regular maintenance to keep production uninterrupted. For this reason, a 660 MW unit of the plant is being shut down for maintenance from June 26. For this, customers have to bear a little cost for a maximum of one week.
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