Blackout all over as grid fails
The whole country on Saturday morning went into a rare power blackout which continued for hours together as the national grid collapsed after the 400kv power transmission line between India and Bangladesh tripped, officials said.The blackouts began at 11:27am and power could not be restored in most of the urban and rural areas until late into the night.Power Grid Company of Bangladesh managing director Masum-Al-Beruny said that the authorities started power transmission on a limited scale to some areas in Chittagong and elsewhere at about 6:30 pm.The government formed an eight-member investigation committee to investigate the grid failure, prime minister’s energy adviser Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury told a press briefing at 9:50pm.
The committee will submit a report in three days with recommendations to avoid such accidents in future, he said.Tawfiq said that the grid started transmitting some 2,200MW of power to different areas, including the capital city.The entire grid is expected to be restored by this morning, he said.Most parts of the country remained out of electricity until after midnight, which added to the sufferings of the people and disrupted health services, industrial productions and business activities.
After dusk, no streetlights came on in cities and towns and households chores were done in candlelight.Panic gripped people as the blackout continued until after mid-night even in the capital.
The government deployed additional security personnel to ensure law and order amid the blackouts, officials said.Bangladesh Power Development Board supplied electricity between 5,500MW and 6,500MW in the past few days against a demand for over 7,000MW.The trouble began when a 400-kilovolt transmission line importing electricity from India tripped at 11:27 am causing the national grid to collapse although the government installed a high-voltage substation at a cost of about Tk 1,000 crore to protect the grids of the two countries from such technical glitches, a PGCB official said.PDB started importing electricity between 335MW and 450MW from India on October 1, 2013 through the 400kv transmission line between Baharampur in West Bengal and Bheramara of Kushtia in Bangladesh although Bangladesh had signed two separate contracts with India to import 500MW of electricity though the facility.The authorities concerned, however, did not explain why a trip in power transmission from India to Bangladesh led to the national grid collapse.
The state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Nasrul Hamid, told reporters that it was too early to blame someone. ‘At the moment it is important to restore the power supply.’All power units in operation stopped generation following the grid failure, a PDB official said.Masum, however, said that no power plants were damaged due to the countrywide grid failure.At 3:00pm, the PGCB started transmitting electricity on a small scale to Sylhet and Mymensingh, a PGCB official said.But, in 88 minutes, he said, the efforts proved abortive as both the districts joined the rest of the country in blackouts.The first attempt failed due to a ‘mismatch in voltage’ in power transmission system, Masum said.The authorities, in its second attempt, began power transmission to Chittagong and a few other regions around 6:30pm, he said.They were increasing the power transmission in a slow pace to match the demand with the generation of electricity, Masum added.
Many power plants would take hours to begin generation as they need to draw their driving energy from the grid, a PDB official said.Dhaka Power Distribution Company director Ramijuddin said that the authorities started power supply on a limited scale to some areas of Dhaka at about 8:00pm adding, ‘It would take some time to return to regular supply.’
The people experienced similar blackouts seven years ago twice in a month in 2007.The country was out of power supply for over 24 hours after the deadly cyclone Sidre pounded coastal areas on November 16 and for over four hours after the power supply from Ghorashal Station tripped on December 15, 2007.
