Grid Failure: Power outage hits half the country

People of 32 districts saw several hours of power outage yesterday following a failure of two major transmission lines.

The problem began after a 230kV tower of Ashuganj-Sirajganj transmission line was damaged by a nor'wester in Kishoreganj's Bhairab upazila Monday night causing power cuts in several districts, Sajjadur Rahman, managing director of Ashuganj Power Station told The Daily Star.

The Ghorasal-Ishwardi transmission line too failed around 11:20am yesterday when Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) used it to provide power to the affected districts and apparently caused an overload, according to ABM Badruddoza, assistant general manager (public relations) of the state-run company.

PGCB is responsible for operation, maintenance and development of power transmission system across the country.

The failure of transmission lines resulted in the shutdown of power plants in the country's west and northern regions which left people of 32 districts in Khulna, Barisal, Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions without electricity, he added.

The power outage forced hospitals and clinics in the regions to use diesel generators. Productions in small and medium industries were hampered, report our correspondents. 

“The districts remained without power up to four hours before the situation improved around 3:45pm [yesterday],” said Badruddoza.

PGCB Managing Director Masum-Al-Beruni told The Daily Star around 8:00pm that power plants that had shut down were coming back online.

“However, there may be load shedding in some areas as it takes some time to start the plants,” he said.

PGCB, meanwhile, formed a committee to probe the matter, he added.

The four-member committee led by Kamrul Hasan, chief engineer (transmission-2) was asked to submit the report within five working days, he added.

Patients in hospitals and industries in Rajshahi city suffered frequent power outages throughout yesterday, reports our staff correspondent there.