155m left without power in Bangladesh after transmission line failure
Fault 'on line from India' triggers cascading shutdowns across energy-hungry Bangladesh
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 02 November, 2014, 6:44am
UPDATED : Sunday, 02 November, 2014, 11:38am
Agence France-Presse in Dhaka
Dhaka during the power blackout yesterday. Power was restored in most parts of Bangladesh, some 12 hours after a massive nationwide electricity blackout. Photo: AFP
A massive nationwide power blackout hit Bangladesh yesterday after a transmission line failed, leaving homes, businesses and shops in the densely populated country without electricity.
Power was restored in some parts of the capital, Dhaka, after several hours, and authorities said they hoped to have electricity back on across the nation of 155 million by last night.
Local media said the problem stemmed from a technical problem at an electrical substation that was distributing power from India, but government officials would not confirm the reports.
Engineers "are working to fix the outage", senior power ministry official Masud Alberuni said, adding all areas linked to the national electricity grid were hit.
The national grid "tripped" close to mid-day, Alberuni said. "All the power-generating stations in the country automatically shut down in a cascading effect," he added.
The outage marked the first time the whole country has been without power since a devastating cyclone November 2007.
The blackout hit at the weekend, lessening the impact on industry. Temperatures have also passed their summer peak, limiting complaints over the stoppage of fans and air conditioning units.
Many people in chronically energy-short Bangladesh, used to regular power cuts lasting many hours, did not know that the blackout was nationwide. But homes and shops went without power, and elevators were halted.
The presidential palace, the prime minister's office, government offices and television stations were all hit by the outage.
Hospital intensive care units functioned on back-up generators, but ward patients suffered.
Power returned to Dhaka's international airport after several hours during in which it was forced to run on generators, officials said. "We have already restored power to some parts of the capital and we can hope we can restore power to the whole country by the evening," power development board spokesman Saiful Hasan said.
Power ministry official Alberuni did not identify the transmission line which had suffered the problem. But Chowdhury Alamgir Hossain, a director of the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune newspaper the blackout occurred after a transmission line transporting power from India through a "high-voltage" substation failed.
Dhaka began importing power from India late last year through a transmission line stretching from India's eastern state of West Bengal to southwestern Bangladesh.
"We are investigating the reason for the power cut. A probe committee will be formed soon," said Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Power. "Power supply has been started in some areas of the country. I hope the entire country will get back normal supply within four to five hours."
Still, several hours after the outage began, authorities were only able to supply 400MW of power, far short of normal daily demand of some 7,000MW.
The rise in energy consumption has outdistanced economic growth in Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, with an expanding middle-class and increasing industrialisation imposing ever-heavier loads on scant generating capacity.
