Record load-shedding plunges nation into darkness

Bangladesh's power sector plunged into fresh turmoil this week as load-shedding shattered its own record twice within ten hours, exposing the fragility of a national grid buckling under a convergence of gas shortages, faltering coal-fired output, and a sudden slump in electricity imports from India.

The shortfall climbed from 3,671 megawatts at 3 pm on Sunday to 3,757 megawatts by 1 am -- eclipsing the previous high of 3,512 megawatts set just a week earlier on 3 August, and far surpassing the 3,419-megawatt peak recorded under the last government in June 2023 -- with deficits still exceeding 3,000 megawatts well into the small hours. The Power Development Board attributes roughly 2,000 megawatts of the shortfall to gas scarcity alone, with power-sector demand running at over a billion cubic feet daily against a supply of barely 700 million, while a further 1,000-megawatt gap stems from coal shortages afflicting major plants including Payra, whose output at one point collapsed to roughly half its 1,320-megawatt capacity. The crisis traces back to a fire and technical fault at Excelerate Energy's floating LNG terminal in Cox's Bazar on 21 July, which knocked out nearly half the country's LNG regasification capacity; repair parts have since been rushed in from Finland, Spain and Turkey, with full restoration tentatively expected after 11 pm on 10 August, though officials caution this is not guaranteed.

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Compounding the domestic shortfall, electricity imports from the Adani plant in India's Jharkhand state have also plunged, dropping from a typical 1,600 megawatts at peak hours to just 815 megawatts on Sunday evening -- a fall the company has attributed to disrupted coal transport amid adverse weather, though the Power Development Board has been unable to independently verify the claim. Rural areas are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with residents in numerous districts reporting outages stretching to 10-12 hours a day, disrupting irrigation, small businesses, and schooling, even as the government had earlier pledged to spread the burden more evenly by imposing controlled cuts in urban areas too. With gas, coal, and imported power all under strain simultaneously, officials say the durability of any relief will hinge not on a single fix but on restoring supply across every source feeding the national grid at once.