Containing The Power Outage

Fewer working days and work during day Lower peak demand and end political fray.

Power outage has become a chronic problem amid scorching summer heat. Situation is worst in the villages. Dhaka dwellers have not yet bear the brunt of 'load management'. In the rural areas, electricity supply does not match the demand, which is much higher in summer days. Rural Electrification Board (REB), the organization in charge of supplying electricity in rural areas, does not get as much electricity as it needed from public distribution bodies. According to a news report by Mohiuddin, Daily Prothom Alo, Mymensing got 48% ,Rongpur got 40% and Khulna got 39% less electricity than what they needed on Tuesday( see "Barchhey Loadshedding,Bhoganti Beshi Gram E(Outage On The Rise,Villages Suffer Most)" by Mohiuddin, Daily Prothom Alo ,p 1,April 23,2026).

Govt furnished data shows country's peak electricity demand is 16000 megawatts while electricity generation is 14126 megawatts(see "Dhaka to face 110MW load shedding on trial basis to ensure irrigation supply: State minister", The Business Standard,April 23,2026,https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/energy/dhaka-face-110mw-load-shedding-trial-basis-ensure-irrigation-supply-state-minister). Summer days are not over. Meteorologists fear several heat waves during this summer season. That means electricity consumption will rise and so will the peak demand. Since generation faces hurdles, there will be more power outage. And rural areas face most of the crisis.

But the trouble free days of Dhaka dwellers are numbered. State minister Aninda Islam Amit at the Parliament said that Dhaka would face 110 megawatts load shedding on trial basis to ensure supply of electricity for irrigation in rural areas (see "Dhaka to face 110MW load shedding on trial basis to ensure irrigation supply: State minister", The Business Standard,April 23,2026). State minister sounded confident that the crisis would not prolong as govt has the fund to import fuel and one coal power plant will resume operation following maintenance. If there is truth in it, then this power crisis could have been avoided through innovative means. First take a look at the problems the outage created. The onset of the war in Middle East and subsequent fuel crisis led to closure of many schools for more than a month. Now frequent power cuts in the villages hamper the learning of the students at home. Many SSC examinees cannot prepare themselves well for the ongoing exams. There is a measles outbreak in Bangladesh and frequent load shedding in the villages complicated the care and treatment of the infants at hospitals and at home. Apart from hampering irrigation, small businesses in the rural areas suffer tremendously, witnessing drop in the sales revenue.

Govt claims the suffering is temporary. This short spell of load shedding could be avoided. Day light saving time is not new to Bangladeshis. If office hours are between 8 am and 4 pm, then lot of electricity will be saved,discarding the need for power outage. If the number of working days are reduced to 4 days ,then it will also save a lot of electricity. It will also lower the number vehicles on the street during working days, saving lots of fuel. Sri Lanka is already pursuing this strategy. Last but not the least is to bring all the coal based and furnace oil based power plants into full power generation, improving the load shedding situation dramatically.

Total installed power generation capacity of the country is 27840 megawatts (source: Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Bangladesh). Lack of natural gas and furnace oil render most of the power generation plants out of operation. Since govt is confident to procure more LNG and oil for power generation, it is anticipated that the power outage will not take a virulent form. Even if the power outage is necessary, the urban centers should bear the most of it ,sparing the villages and not perturbing the rural economy. Rearranging working hours or fewer working days could be thought of alternative to power cuts as they lower the peak demand for electricity. Point is there is no need for power outage when innovative means are available.