National grid fully operational after sudden outage

Power supply across eastern Dhaka and Chittagong has been fully restored after a sudden national grid failure triggered a major power outage on Tuesday (October 27) afternoon, according to Power Grid Bangladesh PLC (PGCB).

The power disruption occurred unexpectedly at 12:43 PM, affecting several transmission and distribution nodes in eastern Dhaka—including Bhulta, Haripur, Siddhirganj, Gulshan, Rampura, Ulon, Moghbazar, Khilgaon, Banasree, and Motijheel—as well as portions of Chittagong.

High-profile government and commercial institutions, including the Bangladesh Secretariat and Bangladesh Bank, experienced temporary power loss before emergency backup generators were activated to maintain essential operations.

In an official update issued at 2:30 PM, PGCB confirmed that emergency restoration efforts had been completed successfully, with all national grid transmission lines and substations brought back online.

"The restoration work on the national grid was fully completed at 2:30 PM. Currently, all grid lines and grid substations are operational," PGCB stated. Power plants are being systematically brought back online as distribution companies gradually pick up electrical load. Authorities noted that scattered load-shedding across affected zones will clear as generation levels increase throughout the day.

Throughout the incident, the national grid system remained under the full control of the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC). PGCB confirmed that northern regions and other parts of Bangladesh remained unaffected, with normal power operations continuing uninterrupted.

While the underlying technical cause of the initial grid drop remains under investigation, PGCB expressed regret for the temporary inconvenience caused to the public during the blackout.

-SA