Power outages became more frequent with the day temperature rising, straining people’s life and hampering hampering industrial and agricultural production. It has also become difficult for HSC examinees to get prepared for the exams.
The average maximum temperature across the country has crossed 35 degrees Celsius peaking to about 40 degrees Celsius.
Working people particularly those who need to work under the open sky like rickshaw and rickshaw-van pullers are suffering the most.
Power outages are taking place eight to ten times in Dhaka and about 15 times in rural areas as power generation declined.
The Power Development Board, which generates and buys electricity from both the public and the private sector, fails to generate more than 3,100MW of power – around 1,700MW for fuel shortage and around 1,400MW for technical problems.
The demand, on the other hand, has increased significantly as the summer sets in well, the officials of the power distribution agencies concerned said.
They said that the demand for power had increased up to 7,000MW while the power board could meed 50 to 65 per cent of the demand.
Saidur Rahman, a resident of Khilgaon in Dhaka, told New Age, ‘It seems that the sun is burning everything. The suffering intensifies when power outages become more frequent.’
He said that he had been worried about his son preparing for the HSC examinations.
Power marketing officials in Dhaka told New Age that they had been forced to cause outages for six to eight hours in different areas of the capital.
They said that the demand for power in Dhaka on Friday had gone up more than 2,000MW while the national load despatch centre was providing 1,510MW during peak hours.
The Dhaka Power Distribution Company’s director (operations) Mohammad Mizanur Rahman told New age that they were forced to cause outages to manage the shortage of 300MW of power on Friday.
‘The demand for power this evening in DPDC areas was estimated at 1,000MW considering the industries shut. We have been given 723MW today,’ he said on Friday.
The New Age correspondent in Rajshahi, quoting the local Met Office, said that day temperature there had increased for a few days and the highest temperature recorded on Friday was 37.8 degrees Celsius.
Boro cultivation in increased temperature needs more irrigation to keep them wet. But the farmers were not given adequate power to run their pumps.
The correspondent in Chittagong said that the supply of the local power distribution
agency was around 38 per cent less than the demand.
Power board officials reportedly said that it could supply around 250MW  against a demand for 700MW.
The GPH Isphat chairman, Jahangir Alam, said that they were the worst victim of power crisis as most of their machines take several hours to run in full swing after an outage.
‘Power outage is affecting the people and hampering industrial production,’ he said adding that the national economy would need to pay a high price if the situation continued.