The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has introduced a structured daily load-shedding schedule of five hours across its premises, responding to severe shortages in the national power grid. The administration initiated the measure after receiving a formal advisory from the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC), which indicated that widespread distribution deficits required immediate, scheduled power rationing across institutional zones.
The announcement came via an emergency circular released by the Office of the Chief Engineer on Sunday afternoon. Under the newly established protocol, electricity supplies to the campus will be suspended during five designated one-hour intervals throughout the day and night. The planned disconnections are set for 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM, 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, midnight to 1:00 AM, and 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM.
Campus officials confirmed that auxiliary power systems cannot compensate for the shortfall. The official notice made clear that the university’s backup diesel generators lack the capacity to electrify all campus infrastructure simultaneously during these extended outages. Consequently, faculty buildings, student residential halls, research laboratories, and staff accommodations will face regular blackouts, leading university authorities to appeal for patience and cooperation from students and employees alike.
The rationing takes place against the backdrop of persistent generation pressures in the national grid, where fuel constraints and peak urban demand have forced distribution companies like DPDC to implement rotational blackouts across metropolitan Dhaka. For an engineering institution relying heavily on precision laboratory machinery, high-performance computing clusters, and continuous research experiments, intermittent electricity supplies present acute operational hurdles to academic continuity.
BUET Chief Engineer Dr A.K.M. Jahangir Alam stated that the university had little choice but to comply with the distribution utility’s directives. He explained that the notification was issued promptly on Sunday afternoon so that students and faculty members could adjust their work and study routines around the blackouts. University technical teams are working to allocate auxiliary power to essential infrastructure where feasible, though comprehensive relief remains entirely dependent on DPDC’s ability to stabilise baseline grid supplies.
Dr Alam remarked that normal transmission will resume immediately once the power distributor overcomes its supply deficits. For the present, however, university authorities have been unable to provide a firm date for when the emergency load-shedding schedule will be terminated.
