Acute load shedding coupled with the scarcity of water amid the continuing intolerable heat wave has made the civic life of people living both in urban and rural areas of Chittagong Division miserable.
Students who are preparing for their examinations at schools cannot concentrate on their study owing to the scorching summer heat and severe load shedding.
The people of Chittagong are facing a daily power shortage of more than 200 MW. Assistant Director of Power Development Board Monirujjaman informed the press that Chittagong has a demand of around 600 MW power per day in this time of the year but they have the capacity to supply only 350 to 400 MW. “As the water level has fallen due to heat, one unit of Kaptai Hydro-power station is out of operation now” he went on to say “besides, we are getting only 200 MW from Raojan Thermal Power Plant now”.
Sources said Power Development Board has failed to fully utilize the gas saved from the suspension of two major fertilizer factories of the country, CUFL and KAFCO, due to mechanical problems of its generating units. All six gas-fired units of PDB in Chittagong remained suspended for acute shortage of gas for a long time.
PDB officials said that the Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company cannot supply adequate gas for power generation. The PDB is getting only one million cft of gas against a demand of 105 million cft. So, PDB’s power generation with gas has been seriously hampered. The second unit of Raozan power station went into operation on March 19 last with the resumption gas supply to it after closing down two major fertilizer factories.
The six gas-fired units in Chittagong include two units of Raozan power station, 60-MW Shikalbaha power station, two 56-MW barge-mounted stations at Shikalbaha and 150-MW peak-in power station in Shikalbaha with a total generation capacity of 686 MW.
