Alongside rural areas, cities now also face load shedding in phases

Along with rural areas, people in Dhaka, Chattogram, and other metropolitan cities have been suffering from load shedding in phases, despite record power generation in the national grid.

On Monday, when the country recorded the highest 15,604 MW of power generation at 9pm, consumers suffered 600 MW of load shedding then, though the maximum load shedding on the given day was 2,253 MW at midnight.

From midnight to morning, load shedding happens round-the-clock amid the heatwave that makes life miserable.

People pass the night with their hands fanning them and turning and tossing on their beds as an attempt to reduce the heat intensity.

Besides household consumers, medical care and other emergency services are also being interrupted in different parts of the country over power outages.

Abdullah SM Asif, a resident of Sector 3 of the capital's Uttar area, said that they are facing power outages four to five times a day.

"Of the multiple outages, sometimes in one outage they remain out of power for two hours while power comes within hours in other outages," said Asif angrily.

Power distribution companies are also struggling to fulfil the warmer temperature-driven demand even after supplying record power.

The Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited is responsible for supplying electricity to the north city corporation, Uttara, and Tongi.

Its Managing Director Kawsar Amir Ali said that due to temperature, the distribution company faces an additional 350 MW to 400 MW of power demand this month.

"City dwellers are increasing power consumption by setting air conditioners, which is adding pressure to the system. However, our system is enabled to meet the demand forecasted until 2025."

Currently, the distribution company deals with around 1,350 MW of power demand per day, which is up from 1,000 MW last year.

"We are dealing with the situation very well. However, due to the power transmission company's grid sub-station weakness, we are going through around 50 MW of load shedding in some parts of our distribution areas," added Kawsar Amir Ali.

Engineer Bikash Dewan, managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited, stated that power supply to Old Dhaka and a portion of Narayanganj has increased by 200 MW since last year.

"Around this time last year, our maximum demand was 1,700 MW, which has now exceeded 1,900 MW. As of now, we are getting the required electricity, except for a few shortages," he said.

Dealing with such sudden demand driven by a heatwave is very challenging because transformers and distribution systems become overloaded due to the use of air conditioners, he added.

"However, we have kept our manpower on standby round-the-clock in case any emergency emerges over transformer failure and other technical glitches."

"Sometimes, our manpower has to rush to the spot to keep the supply restored while they are taking Iftar, a special meal to break the fast," he added.

The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (Breb) is responsible for supplying electricity to the rural and remote areas of the country.

In the present heatwave situation, rural consumers are most vulnerable, as they are facing a five- to six-hour power outage in a single day.

However, Breb officials could not be reached for a comment on the power supply situation.