This year's power cut or load shedding scenario seems to have returned with even more vengeance compared to last year's summer. Last year when the electricity authorities had imposed planned power cuts in designated localities, it plunged into utter mismanagement. So far, it is even worse this year.
In the midst of this year's sizzling summer Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is shedding over 2,000 Megawatts of load across the country as dearth of gas forced the power authorities to shut down a number of gas-fired power plants.
We, however, repeat our old appeal to electricity authorities concern to clearly specify time and areas and notify prior power supply is suspended, since a clearly chalked out plan would only help city dwellers to prepare and plan accordingly.
Most areas falling under Dhaka South City Corporation are already experiencing over 4 hours of load shedding complimented by 10-20 minutes of erratic power cuts every now and then.
The situation is comparatively worse in areas under the Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) as the company is somewhat compelled to go for double the time of load shedding that it had initially planned.
The point, however, while load shedding is a common phenomenon , planned load shedding management mechanism is a relatively new trend in Bangladesh, therefore it was imperative to follow and acquire knowledge on how other countries have efficiently applied the scheme. And as the global energy crisis is not likely to end anytime soon, the government must buckle up for the worst to come.
However, observing deeper into the current critical energy scenario to have overwhelmed us and other countries - government's energy austerity measure is not irrational. We must all realise that almost all countries across the globe are grappling with fuel and energy crisis - directly or indirectly.
As regular power outages have become an integral part of our daily life, the most we expect from the government's end is to tackle the crisis more efficiently and focus more on long-term solutions instead of stopgap measures.
Reasonably enough, the government is in a difficult state relating to gas supply because of several external factors, but what we fail to understand is why power authorities concern hadn't anticipate the ongoing supply crunch and resort to pre-emptive measures to prevent the growing crisis.
In conclusion, we call on the BPDB and Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) to upgrade and inform on load shedding to city dwellers on a day to day basis. DPDC's daily allocation is about 800 MW against 1100 MW demand for its distribution network according to its website. The reported numbers of demand and deficit does not match the reality. The power authorities concern also must conform and maintain the load shedding schedule.
We are embarrassed.
Why our youngsters want to go abroad?