United News of Bangladesh

Frequent power outages amid a supply shortfall have made daily life increasingly difficult for residents in Khulna as prolonged load-shedding continues in the city and surrounding areas. Amid intense heat, repeated power cuts have left people frustrated, with little relief even during nighttime. Local people electricity outages often begin just as temperatures remain high, depriving them of sleep for hours. Children, the elderly and the sick are facing the worst of the situation, they said. Many residents alleged that sudden, unannounced power cuts are disrupting their daily activities, while also affecting businesses. Quoting the central control room of the West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL), Chief Executive Engineer Rokon Uzzaman said power demand in Khulna stood at 653 megawatts at 10am on April 16, against a supply of 550 megawatts, resulting in a shortfall of 103 megawatts. Earlier, on April 15 at 1pm, demand was 750 megawatts while supply was 572 megawatts, leading to load-shedding of 178 megawatts. The same day at 9pm, demand was recorded at 686 megawatts against a supply of 542 megawatts, causing a deficit of 144 megawatts. Md Solaiman, a resident of Sheikhpara, said, “Load-shedding is continuing round the clock. Electricity goes off every hour. Children are suffering badly in this heat.” Residents urged the authorities to take immediate steps to ensure stable power supply and reduce load-shedding during the intense heat.

State minister for Power, Energy and Mineral resources Nasrul Hamid has urged power distribution companies to introduce a one- stop service centre where consumers can receive all kinds of services. “One- stop service centre can reduce customers’ harassment if services like connection, post-connection service, information service and bill payments are available there,” he said while laying foundation stone for “Dhanmondi Twin Tower”, a 15-story commercial complex of Dhaka Power distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), at Paribagh in the city. With DPDC Managing Director Chinese Bikash Dewan in the chair, the function was also addressed by Power Secretary Habbur Rahman, Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jiming and TBEA Vice President Jackie Chen Dong. DPDC will build the multistoried complex on 7.32 acres of land to house its offices along with residential apartments and a shopping mall.   Some 50 percent of the area will have open space while the 15-story Twin Tower, having a three levels basement,  commercial space, digital museum, banquet hall, Cineplex, café and food court, said a DPDC press release. It mentioned that the complex is being built as part of a Chinese funded project titled: Expansion and Strengthening of Power System Network under DPDC area for which TBEA Company Ltd, a Chinese contractor, was appointed to do the job. The project includes construction a total of 14 sub-stations of each having 132/33 kV capacity, 26 sub-stations of each having 33/11 kV, Scada Automation System, modern machnised warehouse, underground cablings of 653 km of 132 kV, and 700 km of 33 kV, 670 km of 11 kV distribution lines, 2515 km overhead line of 11 kV, 2000 km of overhead lines of 0.4 kV, underground cabling of 105 km overhead lines in Dhanmondi and construction of modern sub-station-cum office/commercial/high-rise residential building. The State Minister said the new Twin Tower complex will play a role to increase the income of DPDC.

Hundreds of millions of Pakistanis were left without power late Saturday owing to a technical fault in the country's power distribution system, said government officials.

The post-paid electricity bill payers will be able to replace their meters with pre-paid ones to escape harassment regarding bill payment, said Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) on Saturday.

Bangladesh’s power and energy sector has now moved into the second generation of problems where challenges have shifted from concerns of electricity production to pricing and energy mix issues. 

Notwithstanding an exponential growth in electricity generation, the repeated power tariff hikes across Bangladesh will only burden the consumers, eminent economist Dr Ahsan H Mansur has said.

Power Division has finally asked all the power distribution entities to directly purchase electricity from solar mini-grid operators to save their investment. 

A day after a hike in power tariffs, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) on Friday raised the water tariff, dealing a double blow to consumers.   It issued a notice hiking the water tariff for both residential and commercial users.   The price of per unit (1,000 litres) of water has been fixed at Tk 14.46 from the existing Tk 11.57, a rise by 24.97 percent, for residential users while Tk 40 from the current Tk 37.04, up by 9.94 percent, for commercial consumers.   The new rates will come into effect on April 1, the notice said.   This was the 2nd water tariff hike in a span of eight months.