Bangladesh faces prolonged outages as generation shortfall widens

Power cuts have intensified across Bangladesh after a sharp drop in gas supplies widened the electricity generation shortfall and forced utilities to ration power throughout the day and night.

Average daily shortages reached 1,482 megawatts last week, up from 320 megawatts the previous week. The deficit approached 3,000 megawatts early Sunday after pipeline gas supplies fell more than 17% following a July 22 accident at an Excelerate Energy-operated liquefied natural gas terminal.

Fuel shortages affected at least 62 generating units, while gas-fired production fell from about 5,200 megawatts to 3,500 megawatts.

“We are running whatever we have,” said Zahurul Islam, a Bangladesh Power Development Board member responsible for generation, to the Daily Star.

Load-shedding affected all eight divisions, disrupting households, farms, businesses and factories. Officials said partial gas restoration could begin after Aug. 10, but full terminal operations would take longer.