Widespread load-shedding disrupted daily life across Bangladesh on Saturday, unsettling what is traditionally a lower-demand weekend as generation dipped significantly across major coal-fired power stations and cross-border electricity imports dwindled. By late afternoon, national transmission records showed grid deficits surpassing 1,900 megawatts (MW), leaving households and businesses across Dhaka facing multiple rounds of rotational blackouts before dusk.
Official operational records published by the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) highlighted an unyielding imbalance between aggregate consumer demand and available generation capacity. At 5:00 pm, national power demand stood at 16,157 MW against an actual dispatch of 14,273 MW, producing an instantaneous deficit of 1,884 MW. The strain had reached its daytime peak an hour earlier at 4:00 pm, when national demand touched 16,024 MW against a net supply of 14,089 MW, leaving a generation gap of 1,935 MW.
System data showed the shortfall escalating steadily throughout the afternoon. At 3:00 pm, the deficit stood at 1,891 MW as generating units sent 14,043 MW into the transmission network against a load requirement of 15,934 MW. Early morning and midday operations had witnessed comparatively modest deficits—registering at 786 MW at 1:00 pm and 667 MW at 2:00 pm—before climbing sharply as commercial and residential air-conditioning loads intensified. The overnight grid had experienced similar pressure in the early hours of Saturday: at 2:00 am, the generation shortfall reached 2,099 MW against a demand of 16,015 MW, while at 3:00 am the gap stood at 2,035 MW with generation lingering at 13,863 MW against an aggregate demand of 15,898 MW.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Chairman Engineer Rezaul Karim explained that while domestic natural gas supplies to thermal stations held steady, electricity yields from coal-based facilities fell steeply. Cross-border electricity imports from the Adani Group thermal plant in Godda, India, saw pronounced curtailments, coinciding with reduced daytime generation at critical domestic base-load installations, including Patuakhali’s Norinco project, the Payra thermal power plant, and the Matarbari deep-sea power station. Output from Norinco and Matarbari recovered somewhat by Saturday evening, and Adani authorities conveyed that efforts were underway to ramp up supply.
Grid dispatch logs revealed that incoming electricity from the Adani plant fell to 955 MW by 1:00 am on Saturday, marking a drop of 349 MW from the 1,304 MW recorded at midnight. The Indian plant’s supply fluctuated between 800 MW and 900 MW for substantial stretches of the day. Domestic coal units faced parallel shortfalls: the Payra plant generated roughly 300 MW below its standard operational threshold, whilst Norinco and Matarbari collectively underdelivered by nearly 600 MW against standard output expectations.
These generation constraints placed acute strain on urban distribution networks. A senior official from the Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) confirmed that peak metropolitan demand climbed to 2,333 MW against a 250 MW local deficit, forcing the utility to execute two to three cycles of load-shedding across various sectors.
Conditions were noticeably harsher in the northern districts managed by the Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO). Facing a 400 MW shortfall against a peak demand of roughly 1,500 MW, DESCO was compelled to enforce rotational cuts lasting four hours or more in several residential and commercial quarters. Grid planners underscored that whilst gas-fired generators continue to provide base support, resolving fuel logistics and stabilising regional cross-border power corridors remain vital to restoring national grid equilibrium.
