Power supply to country’s southwest and north regions was restored partially after four hours of outage due to a major grid failure which occurred at around 11:00am on Tuesday.
Khulna, Barisal, Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions remained cut off following the major breakdown of Ishwardi-Ghorashal and Ashuganj-Sirajganj power transmission lines due to nor’wester.
“The power supply remained suspended in the four divisions since 11:00am yesterday following the failure of the two major grid transmission lines,” said a high official of the Power Development Board (PDB) on Tuesday afternoon.
The grid failures virtually led to shutdown of many power plants in the country’s Southwest and North regions. Nor’wester on Monday night first damaged the national grid’s Ashuganj-Sirajganj line
At first grid failure took place in 230 kV Ashuganj-Sirajganj transmission line as a strong storm hit it at 11:00 on Monday night.
As the grid line works as one of the main electricity transmission line to the northern region, a number of power plants in the region were immediately shut.
“The Ghorashal-Ishwardi line also tripped around 11.30am during repair works on Tuesday,” another PDB official said.
With this breakdown of the grid line, which works as one of the main electricity transmission lines to southwest and north regions, a number of power plants in the regions were immediately shut.
Meanwhile, power cuts hit most parts of Southwest and North regions halting business and other works for several hours.
Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) spokesperson ABM Bodruddoza Khan said Ishwardi-Ghorashal and Ashuganj-Sirajganj power transmission lines restored at around 3:00pm yesterday.
“The power supply situation has become normal in Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal divisions,” he said.
According to the PDB, power transmission in Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Rangpur regions have been cut off halting production at the 27 plants with the capacity of producing 2,249 MW power in the regions.
Other than these, another 500MW power comes from India by a trans-border grid, which enters through Bangladesh’s Kushtia district.
Meanwhile, a probe body led by PGCB Chief Engineer Mohammad Kamrul Hassan has been formed to investigate the incident. The probe body has been asked to submit report within five days.
