State-owned Power Development Board (PDB) claimed that it is generating the highest 8,032 MW of power daily, while the country is facing six to eight hours of load shedding including in the capital Dhaka.
According to the PDB, demand increases by 10 per cent every year, last year the demand was 7,700 MW so this year the demand is about 8,000 MW while the country's average power generation is 7,150 MW daily.
According to the PDB, in spite of the adequate electricity generation the country is suffering due to huge load shedding. The power division official said a number of their power plants are shutting down due to gas supply shortage or for maintenance.
The government has achieved remarkable success in power generation but due to traditional transmission system the Power Division failed to distribute uninterrupted power to the consumer, said PDB official.
But load shedding has reached a miserable level. There are three to four hours of load shedding in urban areas and six to eight hours in rural area, he admitted.
Prof Shamsul Alam an expert on Electricity told the Daily Observer in Thursday "The government gave importance only to increasing power generation avoiding modernization of the transmission system."
"Actually, the power sector lacks a prudent plan. I don't know why the government does not make a realistic plan. Power generation is a combination of plan but last six years the government has taken projects for electricity generation except developing the transmission system," he added.
The country's five distribution companies are also facing the same problem, but there is little initiative to develop the transmission and distribution system.
PDB official said, "We failed to generate about 1,550 MW of power for inadequate gas supply. Beside that there are a number of aging plants whose generation capacity is also going down."
Rural Electricity Board (REB) Chairman Brig Moin Uddin said, "There is no way to deny that the load shedding is continuing. We are not been provided power as per our demand. Our demand is 4,000 MW of power whereas we are getting 3,500 MW, so despite our wish we are not capable of supplying. On the other hand our transmission and distribution line is also very poor.
Moreover, the government is giving power connection to every applicant to achieve the goal of "power for all by 2021."
Our correspondents from Comilla, Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Khulna report that the rural people are suffering from load shedding for six to eight hours.