Gas supply rises, pressure low, power crisis persists

A slight improvement in gas supply has brought some relief to industries and CNG filling stations, but it has failed to ease the broader energy crisis, with electricity shortages worsening and even city residents facing load-shedding at midnight.

Electricity generation has been hit by a fuel shortage, pushing the power deficit beyond 2,300 megawatts at night when demand rises sharply. On Wednesday, 16 September, load-shedding was also significantly higher than the previous day despite a marginal increase in gas supply to the national grid.

At 5pm on Wednesday, electricity demand stood at 16,303MW against a supply of 14,271MW, leaving a deficit of 2,032MW. At the same time on Tuesday, the deficit was 1,319MW �" an increase of about 713MW in a day.

Power Division officials said daily electricity demand is currently around 15,000MW, but it rises to more than 17,000MW at night because of the heat. Fuel shortages are preventing generation from keeping pace with demand, forcing distribution companies to manage the shortfall through load-shedding.

The situation has deteriorated since 6 September, according to Power Grid Bangladesh PLC data. During this period, the generation deficit at different times of the day ranged from about 1,000MW to more than 3,200MW, with the shortfall being managed through load-shedding.

GAS SUPPLY OFFERS LITTLE RELIEF
According to Petrobangla, gas supply to the national grid stood at 2,610 million cubic feet at 4pm on Wednesday, including 1,617mmcfd from domestic gas fields and 993mmcfd from imported LNG.

The previous day, supply was 2,606mmcfd. Thus, the total supply increased by only 4mmcfd in 24 hours, with slight changes in the contributions from domestic gas and LNG.

Reports from industrial areas including Gazipur, Narayanganj and Chattogram indicate that the additional gas supply has provided some relief to industries and CNG stations. But residential consumers have yet to see any major improvement.

“Gas has never been completely cut off here. However, around noon, gas pressure has been very low for the past few days. Today I am getting gas very well," Miss Mohsinul Karim told the Daily Observer.

Farhan Nur, general secretary of the CNG Filling Station Owners Association, said the situation at some filling stations had improved but pressure remained low.

"We can say our situation is a little better than before. There were many stations that had no gas at all; today gas is coming to them.
 They are selling. However, gas pressure is still very low. So it cannot be said that the suffering is completely gone," he said.

The situation remains difficult in many residential areas of the capital. Although gas pressure has improved somewhat in some places during the day, many households still struggle to light their stoves, prolonging their difficulties with cooking.

According to Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, demand in its coverage area is 1,900-2,000mmcfd, against current supply of about 1,411mmcfd. Of this, 222mmcfd is supplied to power plants and 70mmcfd to fertiliser plants, with the remainder distributed among industries, CNG stations, residential consumers and other sectors. Industry receives the largest share.

An official said gas supply had increased compared with earlier, but pressure remained low and could not improve significantly unless overall supply increased further.

GENERATION HIT BY OUTAGES, FUEL SHORTAGES
The power crisis has also been aggravated by plant outages. One unit of the Rampal Power Plant is shut down and may return to operation around 17-18 September. One unit of Matarbari also went out of service on Wednesday morning.

BPDB data show that gas-fired plants were producing around 5,300MW in the evening. Although gas-based plants have a generation capacity of about 12,500MW, only around 5,200MW is currently being generated from the source.

Officials confirmed that all coal-fired plants are operating below capacity, while several other plants are undergoing repair and maintenance.

Oil-fired plants are currently generating a maximum of about 3,500MW, coal-fired plants around 5,000MW, and solar, hydro and wind plants together slightly more than 1,000MW. Imported electricity contributes about 2,000MW.

The situation became more precarious after one unit of Adani's power plant remained shut from midnight last Thursday. At midnight on Wednesday, the plant was supplying a maximum of around 1,400MW, but generation later fell to about 750MW. Until 5pm on Wednesday, it supplied 755MW to the national grid.

Power sector officials and stakeholders identify the fuel crisis as the main reason for the continuing generation deficit. Insufficient gas supply is preventing gas-fired plants from operating at full capacity, leaving a substantial portion of the country's generation capacity unused.

Those involved in the sector fear that the deficit could widen further if the heat intensifies, particularly during peak night-time demand, when electricity consumption rises above 17,000MW.