No relief from loadshedding
Chittagong faces 8 hours of power cut daily
A student studies by candlelight during loadshedding in the port city. The photo was taken on Monday.Photo: STAR
The people in Chittagong are experiencing loadshedding of seven to eight hours a day due to disruption in power generation for lack of sufficient gas supply and fall of water level at Kaptai Lake. Sources in Chittagong PDB said against the total demand of 650MW, three power units, including two rental power plants, generate 240MW to 250MW power in the daytime while three other units operate during the peak hours of night to add 100MW. The national grid contributes around 150MW in the daytime and 50MW at the nighttime to lessen the loadshedding, said the sources. The situation has started worsening since May 5 after the Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company (Kafco) has resumed its operation and supply of gas has decreased in the gas fired 420MW capacity Raozan Thermal Power Plant. The 210MW capacity unit-2 of the Raozan plant now generates 180MW power on an average due to inadequate gas supply, said Chittagong PDB Chief Engineer (Generation) Abu Taher. “After resumption of operation at the Kafco we had to stop generation at one of the two 210MW-capacity units and are now generating 180MW with only 40 million cubic feet (mcf) to 45 mcf gas,” Taher said, adding that it requires 90mcf to 100mcf to run both the units at a time. On the other hand, due to fall at water level at Kaptai Lake, three, out of five power units of the Karnaphuli Hydro Power Station, now generate 100MW power only at the nighttime as against their capacity of 130MW, sources said. The water level at Kaptai Lake was 75msl (mean sea level) on Monday while the plant needs 109msl of water to run all the five units, they said. The water level bellow 70msl causes shutdown of generation at the plant completely, they added. However, unit-3 and unit-4, each having capacity of 50MW remained closed since May, 2008 and January this year respectively for rehabilitation works that contributed much to the loadshedding further worsened by gas crisis, said the sources. The 55MW-capacity rental plant of Energies Power Corporation at Shikalbaha, on the other bank of the river Karnaphuli, is generating around 50MW power while 24MW-capacity plant of Regent Power 20MW for over 5.20 lakh subscribers of vast areas of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and three hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban under Chittagong PDB. Meanwhile, the 116MW-capacity Shikalbaha Plant is lying idle for around six months due to lack of gas supply, PDB sources said. Taher said the situation will improve if it rains heavily raising the water level at the Kaptai and unit-3 and unit-4 of the Hydro Plant resume generation. Benefits from the state-run gas-fired 150MW Peaking Power Plant at the Shikalbaha, which is expected to go into generation next month (June), will depend on availability of gas, he added.
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