With the summer approaching, the Chittagong city dwellers have started feeling the bites of load shedding.
They have complained that disruption in power supply is increasing every day, with outages for eight to 10 times a day.
The areas where power disruption is most rampant are Halishahar, Nasirabad, Chawkbazar, Shulakbahar, Agrabad CDA, Bakalia, Firingi Bazar, Patharghata.
The dwellers accused PDB of reducing the power supply to the residential areas and increasing the supply to the shopping malls.
‘I am fed up with the erratic power supply. The government should give top priority to this issue as the HSC examination is knocking at the door. Every day the power goes out eight to 10 times. Each time the load shedding lasts up to 1-2 hours,’ said Priyanka Chowdhury, an HSC candidate living at Agrabad.
‘With the summer setting in, load shedding has become an everyday phenomenon. There is hardly any day when load shedding does not occur,’ said Partha Sarathy Shikder, a resident Nalapara area.
‘Load shedding has made our life miserable. We are facing power outages for at least 2-3 hours every day,’ said Minu Barua, a housewife of Tigerpass.
Sources in the Chittagong Power Development Board said insufficient gas supply and increase in power consumption in the summer triggered load shedding in Chittagong.
All the gas-based power generation plants with a capacity of 640 megawatt power have been closed over the last few months because of gas crisis.
The gas-based power generation plants of Chittagong are Raozan Thermal Power Plant, Shikalbaha Thermal Power Plant and Shikalbaha Peaking Power.
The only hydroelectric plant can supply 174 megawatt power during peak hour while the supply stands at 70-80 mega watts at daytime.
The fall in water level at Kaptai Hydroelectric Plant also contributed to low power generation, the sources said, adding that there was no visible sign for improvement in the power supply situation in the area.
Raisuddin Sarker, chief engineer, Chittagong zone, PDB, told New Age that the load shedding increased because of increase in power consumption in summer and Boro season and insufficient gas supply to the plants.
‘On February 28, the supply was 504 megawatts. We are trying our level best to address the issue,’ added he.
At present, the total supply of power in Chittagong is around 500 megawatts daily against the demand for 630 megawatts.
The PDB officials said if the present gas crisis persists, power generation in Chittagong would become heavily dependent on the national grid and privately-run furnace oil in the days to come.