Mechanical fault shuts Kumaragaon power plant, worsens load shedding in Sylhet

A 225MW power plant in Sylhet's Kumaragaon has stopped generating electricity due to a mechanical fault, worsening load shedding across the region amid intense heat.

Several consumers said power outages had increased over the past two to three days, with electricity sometimes unavailable for hours at a time. They said power cuts were now occurring almost every hour, while load shedding had intensified further after evening.

Sazzad Hossain, a tailor from Zindabazar in Sylhet city, said frequent outages were severely affecting his business.

"Electricity is unavailable for most of the day. As a result, I cannot deliver clothes to customers on time. Sometimes I cannot even finish stitching a pair of trousers in an entire day," he said.

"Business is in a very bad state, while the prices of everything keep rising. It has become difficult for us to make ends meet."

Saleha Akter, a homemaker from Tilagarh, said load shedding was worse at night.

"Children cannot study or complete their school homework because of the power cuts. If this continues, their exam results will also suffer," she said.

Consumers said power outages were occurring almost every hour in both urban and rural areas of Sylhet. The situation was worse in rural areas, where Palli Bidyut customers were facing five to eight hours of load shedding a day, they said.

Imam Hossain, chief engineer of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Sylhet region, said the Kumaragaon power plant had been out of operation for the past three to four days due to a mechanical fault.

"The plant has stopped generating electricity due to the fault. As a result, we are facing a low-voltage problem and have had to increase load shedding to maintain the voltage," he said last night (27 September).

He said he had been informed that a bulb at the Kumaragaon plant had developed a problem and a replacement was expected to arrive from abroad today (28 September).

"The replacement will be installed after it arrives. However, I do not know how long the repair will take," he said.

Around 60MW of load shedding was being implemented in Sylhet yesterday evening, Imam said.

"Demand was around 255MW in the evening, while we received around 190MW in supply. We have to make up the shortfall through load shedding," he said.

He said load shedding increased after evening as electricity demand rose.

"If the Kumaragaon power plant were operational, there would not have been this much load shedding," the BPDB official said.