Gas crunch leaves BD in frequent power cuts

A nationwide gas shortage is causing frequent power cuts as around three dozen gas-fired power plants are currently out of operation for a lack of input.

Power outages are worst in rural areas, while urban areas are experiencing increased load shedding.

Officials say the situation is unlikely to improve until July 15, when the Summit Group's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal is expected to resume operations.

A 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) shortfall in gas supply to the national grid has resulted from the shutdown of Summit's floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).

This gas shortage has forced nearly all major gas-fired power plants to shut down, including the recently commissioned and efficient Unique Meghnaghat 584 megawatt and Summit Meghnaghat 583 megawatt electricity plants.

Cyclone Remal, which struck the southern parts of the country in late May, damaged Summit's FSRU. After the cyclone, authorities discovered the damage on May 29 and reduced LNG regasification to zero by the morning of May 30.

Due to the reduced LNG re-gasification capacity -- down to around 600 mmcfd from 1,100 mmcfd before the cyclone damage, state-run Petrobangla was forced to cancel four spot LNG cargoes scheduled for June deliveries.

The country's overall natural gas output dipped to around 2,600 mmcfd, including around 606 mmcfd of re-gasified LNG, on July 7. This is down from around 3,100 mmcfd before Cyclone Remal, according to Petrobangla data.

To cope with the power shortfall, state-run electricity marketing and distribution companies have been enforcing load shedding for periods ranging from one to several hours, according to a senior official at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

The overall electricity generation on July 7 was around 12,608 MW during peak day hours and 14,521 MW during peak evening hours against the total generation capacity of 26,815 MW, according to BPDB data.

The senior BPDB official acknowledged that rural areas are currently experiencing the worst of the power outages.

The gas crisis is having a wider impact, jeopardising industrial output, slowing down the filling of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles and causing increased hardship for household consumers.

Household consumers in Dhaka and surrounding areas allege that gas pressure drops in the morning and remains low throughout the day until evening. This limited gas pressure forces them to restrict their cooking to nighttime hours.

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