Load shedding, rising mercury batter rural life

Life of Khadija Khatun and her two-and-a-half-month-old baby had already been miserable amid this extremely hot weather; but the past few days have become even more unbearable for the Pabna resident because of the frequent long rounds of load shedding.

"The temperature is so high that it is very difficult for my baby. The fan could provide some comfort, but frequent power-cuts – sometimes for 10 hours a day – have made that impossible," an apparent angry Khadija said.

Khadija's anger can be felt almost throughout the country as frequent power outages in this ongoing immensely hot weather have been disturbing public life, particularly in the northern parts of the country.

On Tuesday, Rajshahi city recorded a temperature of 42 degrees Celsius while facing 25MW of load shedding, according to data from the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.

The field-level data shows a different picture. As per officials at Rajshahi Palli Bidyut Samity, Durgapur, Mohanpur, Tanore, and Kakonhat upazilas of Rajshahi require 100MW of electricity during the day, but the supply has been only 50MW to 60MW. At night, the demand drops to about 85MW, but the supply is then only 40MW.

Meanwhile, hundreds of aggrieved consumers in Cumilla, Feni and Mymensingh protesting the ongoing load shedding, demanded uninterrupted power supply.

It is alleged that a distressed consumer in Cumilla threatened an engineer of the utility company.

As a precaution, engineer Shamch-e-Arefin filed a general diary with the Kotwali Police Station.

Earlier on Monday, Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad, general manager at Mymensingh Palli Bidyut Samity-3 also wrote the superintendent of police in the district requesting protection for the safety of his office and office staff.

According to Power Grid Company's data, the country faced a maximum of 1,700MW of load shedding on Tuesday and a minimum of 482MW, setting a record of 15,626MW generation in a single day.

Devashis Chakravorty, member (Distribution and Operation) at the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), explained that the load shedding occurring in their distribution areas is due to a shortage of generation.

"Based on the consumption pattern, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) allots the generation to each of the distribution utilities. Whatever we are receiving from the generation end, we supply to the consumers," he added.

Currently, Breb retails around 57% of the country's total power supply.

Due to this supply gap, people in some places are left without electricity for more than eight hours on average.

"Now load-shedding has reached the level of torture," said Sushmita Karmakar, a resident of Bogura.

Golam Mostafa, a resident of Bhimpur village in Naogaon Sadar upazila, expressed their difficulty in surviving due to the load shedding and scorching heat for the last two days.

He mentioned that they cannot get a minimum amount of sleep as electricity comes and goes frequently, and there are more than nine hours of load shedding on average per day.

Why outages despite having huge capacity?

At present, the country has a total grid connected power generation capacity of 23,332MW, while the demand is only 16,000MW. Thus, the question arises as to why the country still faces load shedding.

SM Wazed Ali Sardar, member (generation) at the BPDB, said that they have the capacity to generate more than 20,000MW, but due to some technical issues at the transmission and distribution level, the required power cannot be generated.

"For example, in the Mymensingh region, we are lagging behind in having a strong transmission line. The existing line does not have the capacity to carry the required electricity," he said.

"In other areas, the conductor and transformer of the transmission and destruction line cannot deal with the load of the consumers' end demand. Therefore, we cannot produce and supply the required power to the distribution system," he added.

Irrigation is the worst-hit

The ongoing load shedding and heatwave are hitting day labourers, who live hand-to-mouth, and farmers particularly hard.

Champak Kumar, a resident of Joypurhat, said, "Due to the sweltering heat and load shedding, no one is able to work normally."

Farmer Abu Saeed cultivates paddy on 10 bighas of land in the Pargerbari area of Dhunat that he waters with pumps.

"It is becoming difficult to irrigate the land due to the load-shedding. Water pumping in the paddy field was interrupted due to a power cut. So, how much we irrigate is dried out quickly due to the multiple load shedding in phases," he said.

"To save the farmers and agriculture sector, it is necessary to provide electricity to irrigate the land," he urged.

Narendra Mondal, a farmer from Kailashganj Union in Dacope upazila, said he has cultivated watermelon, which is yet to be sold and requires nurturing for 10 more days.

"Watering is a must for bumper production of watermelon. But due to a power shortage, we could not nurture the crop at its minimum level," he added.

Export-oriented fisheries sector in risk

There are around 105 frozen food processing factories in the country, of which 80% of shrimp processing is done in different factories located in Khulna.

Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association Director S Humayun Kabir said that the shrimp processing industry is completely electricity dependent, as it requires electricity in every step from fish reservation to export.

"Fish should be stored with ice after fishing, but ice cannot be produced when load shedding occurs. If fish is not stored properly, then the quality of the product is degraded. And sometimes it reaches such a level that we can no longer export it or sell it in the local market," he continued.

"But all our factories under the Rural Electrification Board West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited are not getting electricity for seven to 12 hours daily," he said.

He added that factory owners now depend on generators to produce ice amid the load shedding, which is impacting their operating costs.

Our correspondents from Khulna, Rajshahi, Moulvibazar, Cumilla, Sylhet, Brahmanbaria, Tangail and Bogura have contributed to the report.