Bangladesh faces power blackout after national grid fails

Other than components of Bangladesh’s northwest, ‘the remainder of the nation is with out energy’, says an official.

A girl makes use of a conventional hand fan as she assists her daughter in her research throughout an influence minimize at their dwelling in Dhaka [File: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP]

About 140 million folks in Bangladesh are with out energy after a grid failure brought on widespread blackouts, the federal government’s utility firm stated.

The grid failed at 2pm (08:00 GMT) and, other than components of Bangladesh’s northwest, “the remainder of the nation is with out energy”, Energy Improvement Board spokesman Shamim Ahsan stated on Tuesday.

Officers of the state-run Bangladesh Energy Improvement Board stated energy transmission failed someplace within the jap a part of the nation.

All energy crops tripped and electrical energy was minimize within the capital Dhaka and different massive cities, stated Hasan.

Engineers have been making an attempt to find out the place and why the glitches occurred and it might take hours to revive the system, he stated.

Bangladesh’s current spectacular financial progress has been threatened by energy shortages because the authorities suspended operations of all diesel-run energy crops to scale back the price of imports as costs have soared.

The diesel-run energy crops produced about 6 % of Bangladesh’s energy era, so their shutdowns minimize output by as much as 1500 megawatts.

Earlier this month, Faruque Hassan, president of Bangladesh Garment Producers and Exporters Affiliation, stated that the scenario is so severe that garment factories are with out energy now for 4 to 10 hours a day.

Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter after China, and it earns greater than 80 % of its complete overseas foreign money from these exports every year.

Final month, the Asian Improvement Financial institution stated in a report that Bangladesh’s financial progress would gradual to six.6 % from its earlier forecast of seven.1percent within the present fiscal yr.

Weaker client spending attributable to sluggish export demand, home manufacturing constraints and different elements are behind the slowdown, it stated.