The government has formed a committee to investigate Tuesday’s power grid disruption that affected parts of Dhaka and Chattogram, with a separate investigation already under way by Power Grid Bangladesh PLC.
The Power Division has formed a committee headed by its Additional Secretary KM Ali Reza to identify the cause of the disruption and recommend measures to prevent similar incidents. The committee has been given two weeks to submit its report.
Separately, Power Grid Bangladesh PLC has formed a five-member committee led by Syed Ebadullah Haider Ali, chief engineer (additional charge) for Transmission-2. It has been asked to submit its findings within five working days.
The disruption occurred at 12:43pm on Tuesday following a transient fault in the grid connection between Meghnaghat and Haripur power stations, affecting several areas of Dhaka and parts of Chattogram.
The affected areas included Banani, Moghbazar, Banasree, Khilgaon, the Secretariat and Bangladesh Bank, along with Gulshan, Rampura, Motijheel, Bhulta, Haripur, Siddhirganj and Ullon.
Power Grid Bangladesh said restoration work was completed by 2:30pm, with all affected grid lines and substations returning to operation. Power plants were subsequently being brought back online in phases, while sporadic load-shedding was expected to ease as electricity generation increased.
Bangladesh Power Development Board Chairman Engineer Rezaul Karim earlier told Just Energy News that the fault had affected parts of the two cities and that the cause would be investigated after the system was fully restored.
The latest disruption has raised fresh concerns about the reliability of the country’s national electricity transmission network.
A major grid failure on October 4, 2022, left large parts of Bangladesh, including Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Mymensingh, without electricity. Another nationwide grid failure on November 1, 2014, disrupted power supplies for nearly 12 hours.