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Title: 3 power units go on forced outage: Country reels under 300 MW loadshedding

March 31, 2000

by Pradip Sinha

With the gradual rise in the day temperature and demand for power following the advent of summer, the country began to reel under nearly 300 megawatts of loadshedding.

Explaining the main reasons behind the loadshedding, sources in the Power Development Board (PDB) said that within a span of eleven days, at least three power units went on forced outage deteriorating the situation.

With the rise in the day temperature the total demand for electricity throughout the country also rose to nearly 2600 megawatt per day this week from 2450 megawatt in the first week of this month, the sources said adding that on the other hand the total generation from 29 power stations under the jurisdiction of the PDB declined to below 2400 MW.

As a result, the PDB had no other option but to go for loadshedding in rotation throughout the country, they said admitting that many areas in the capital city under the jurisdiction of Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), which consumes almost 50 per cent of the PDB's total generation, are the worst hit.

In the mid-March, the loadshedding was below 100 MW across the country, when the total power production varied from 2450 MW to 2538 MW. But the power production declined to below 2300 MW after forced outage within 11 days between March 18 and March 28 of atleast three units of Raozan, Ghorashal and Baghabari (barge mounted) power stations having a total 465 MW capacity and the loadshedding shot up gradually.

The second unit of Raozan power station having 210 MW capacity had to be shut down for routine maintenance on March 18 and two days later on March 20 the sixth unit of Ghorashal power station having 210 MW capacity went on forced outage. Besides, the operation of the first unit of the private sector barge-mounted power station at Baghabari having 45 MW capacity had to be stopped for major overhauling that forced the PDB to go for 204 MW to 291 MW of loadshedding on each day of the last week that ended yesterday.

Against a total demand ranging between 2525 MW and 2625 MW on each day of the last week, the total generation varied from 2290.7 MW to 2380.9 MW during the period forcing the PDB to go for loadshedding reaching 292 MW. As a result, many city areas like Narinda, Lalbagh, Maniknagar, Ulan, Uttara, Basundhara, Tejgaon and Dhanmondi grid sub-stations had to experience serious loadshedding last week.

The projected loadshedding for yesterday was 172 MW as against a demand for 2625 MW for the day. The probable production of PDB was expected to be 2430 MW after resumption of production at the Raozan unit.

However, according to PDB sources there will be improvement in the power generation as the Raozan unit resumed production yesterday. Besides, the Baghabari unit is expected to resume production on April 2 while the Ghorashal unit on April 4.

Meanwhile, the first unit of the 60 MW power project at Shahjibazar began supplying 30 MW to 40 MW every day since its test-run began on March 27.

http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/mar/31/31032000mt.htm

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 31, 2000