Anisul Islam Noor :
Frequent transformer damage and weak power supply systems are the main cause of power outage in the country, particularly in rural areas, sources at the Power Division said.
Experts, however, blamed poor maintenance and overloading for the increasing rate of transformer damage.
Transformer damage has increased by 52.69 per cent in April compared to March, according to a report placed before a coordination meeting held with state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid in the chair recently.
The number of damaged transformers increased to 6,738 in April from 4,413 units in March, the report said.
It takes several hours in urban areas and several days in rural areas to replace a damaged transformer keeping consumers out of power supply during the period, alleged the consumers.
“Poor maintenance, overloaded power distribution lines, sudden rise in temperature and
thunderbolts cause damage to the transformers,” said Rural Electrification Board chairman Moin Uddin.
“Delay in replacing oil and coil in the transformers, which is also a maintenance issue, causes the damage,” he said adding that every Palli Bidyut Samiti of the board tried to replace the damaged transformer in a shortest possible time.
Except the Power Development Board and the newly created Northern Electricity Supply Company, the four other state-run power distribution utilities experienced the sharp rise in transformer damage, the report showed.
Rural Electrification Board, the country’s largest power distribution utility, had the highest 6,644 damaged transformers in April, 52.60 per cent up from the 4,354 in March.
The number of damaged transformers increased to 20 in April from 12 in March in the distribution area of Dhaka Electric Supply Company, 46 in April from 26 in March in the area of Dhaka Power Distribution Company and 19 in April from 10 in March in West Zone Power Distribution Company, the report said.
The number of damaged transformers, however, decreased in Power Development Board’s distribution areas in April while the number remained unchanged in Northern Electricity Supply Company area.
DESCO managing director Md Shahid Sarwar said that they usually sent portable transformer as a backup power supply facility until a new transformer replaced the damaged one.
People of different areas in Dhaka, however, alleged that it took three to six hours to resume power supply after a transformer failure.
There are 894,956 units of power distribution transformers across the country -REB 848,683, PDB 15,299, DPDC 11,259, DESCO 6,467, NESCO 6,933 and WZPDCO 6,315.
In April, the number of overloaded transformers was 14,705 in REB, 653 in PDB, 230 in NESCO, 57 in WZPDCO, 219 in DPDC and 7 in DESCO areas.
A transformer in power distribution line goes overloaded when the demand for power exceeds its power supply capacity. The REB chairman said that the number of overloaded transformers decreased in April compared to that in March.
Frequent transformer damage and weak power supply systems are the main cause of power outage in the country, particularly in rural areas, sources at the Power Division said.
Experts, however, blamed poor maintenance and overloading for the increasing rate of transformer damage.
Transformer damage has increased by 52.69 per cent in April compared to March, according to a report placed before a coordination meeting held with state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid in the chair recently.
The number of damaged transformers increased to 6,738 in April from 4,413 units in March, the report said.
It takes several hours in urban areas and several days in rural areas to replace a damaged transformer keeping consumers out of power supply during the period, alleged the consumers.
“Poor maintenance, overloaded power distribution lines, sudden rise in temperature and
thunderbolts cause damage to the transformers,” said Rural Electrification Board chairman Moin Uddin.
“Delay in replacing oil and coil in the transformers, which is also a maintenance issue, causes the damage,” he said adding that every Palli Bidyut Samiti of the board tried to replace the damaged transformer in a shortest possible time.
Except the Power Development Board and the newly created Northern Electricity Supply Company, the four other state-run power distribution utilities experienced the sharp rise in transformer damage, the report showed.
Rural Electrification Board, the country’s largest power distribution utility, had the highest 6,644 damaged transformers in April, 52.60 per cent up from the 4,354 in March.
The number of damaged transformers increased to 20 in April from 12 in March in the distribution area of Dhaka Electric Supply Company, 46 in April from 26 in March in the area of Dhaka Power Distribution Company and 19 in April from 10 in March in West Zone Power Distribution Company, the report said.
The number of damaged transformers, however, decreased in Power Development Board’s distribution areas in April while the number remained unchanged in Northern Electricity Supply Company area.
DESCO managing director Md Shahid Sarwar said that they usually sent portable transformer as a backup power supply facility until a new transformer replaced the damaged one.
People of different areas in Dhaka, however, alleged that it took three to six hours to resume power supply after a transformer failure.
There are 894,956 units of power distribution transformers across the country -REB 848,683, PDB 15,299, DPDC 11,259, DESCO 6,467, NESCO 6,933 and WZPDCO 6,315.
In April, the number of overloaded transformers was 14,705 in REB, 653 in PDB, 230 in NESCO, 57 in WZPDCO, 219 in DPDC and 7 in DESCO areas.
A transformer in power distribution line goes overloaded when the demand for power exceeds its power supply capacity. The REB chairman said that the number of overloaded transformers decreased in April compared to that in March.
