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Dhaka Thursday,  Mar 28, 2024

Not The Storm, Mismanagement Was Behind The Massive Grid Failure!

Rafiqul Bashar

The recent grid failure that forced a mass power outage at 38 districts occurred due to the negligence and mismanagement of the operators of the grid system. Though it was initially thought that a tornado was responsible for the grid disaster which had actually broken a transmission tower of the Ashuganj-Sirajganj transmission line only on Monday, the sufferer experienced the power outage on the following day. It clearly suggests that, the storm-struck transmission line failure has no direct or immediate connection with the mass power outage.

According to the related sources, the tower of the Ashuganj-Sirajganj transmission line that collapsed in a storm on Monday night was not the reason of the grid failure at all. They said that, the grid system operators diverted the extra current that was meant to be transmitted through the broken Ashuganj-Sirajganj grid line to another transmission line of Iswardi-Ghorashal. However, both of the lines had a peak capacity of 230kV. As a result, the miscalculated extra load on the Iswardi-Ghorashal grid line forced it to go out of service on the following day at 11.20 AM.
Negligence and mismanagement of the respective operators were the cause of the grid failure which could have been easily avoided if the capacity of the new line would be considered prior to the load-shifting, said the related sources.

The grid disaster that occurred on 2nd May at 11.20 AM forced power outage in a number of 38 districts of the country’s southern and northern part which holds the divisions of Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Barishal. The grid failure also led to a halt in the power import from India and generation of electricity in many power plants of the country.

The countrymen faced another massive blackout throughout the country due to a grid malfunction on 1st November of 2014. Since then, the Power division had been taking many steps to make the grid secure and reliable but, all of them fall in vain in the recent grid failure which suggests that the grid is not secure and reliable yet.

According to Power Development Board (PDB), there are 37 power plants in Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Barishal region which have a joint capacity of 2,665 MW of electricity. The recent grid failure forced all these power plants to lessen their production to 844 MW, ultimately causing most of them to remain shut down till noon of 2nd May.

Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), the responsible authority for the operation of the national grid system has formed the 4 members committee headed by PGCB chief engineer (Transmission-2) Kamrul Hasan. He said to Energybangla that, one of the transmission line tripped due to a storm and the other one got damaged suddenly, and now we’re writing a report on the causes of the sudden failure of the second transmission line and would be submitted to the authority in due time once we finish writing ups.

PGCB managing director Masum Al Beruni said to Energybangla that, the committee has finished its investigation and the reasons behind the grid failure would be known once the report is submitted. He added that, the reconstruction of the broken tower was started.

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