The government has initiated a move to gradually upgrade the existing conventional grid system to a “Smart Grid” within the next few years. As part of the move, initially the smart grid system will be established under the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) and Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC). Read: Smart Grid: Power Cell to get $1.5mn assistance from US According to official sources, Power Cell, a technical wing of the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, has already appointed the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a US-based consulting firm, to conduct a survey to assess the current state of the national grid and connected utilities and also identify needs for the new system. BCG already submitted a report titled: “Technical Assistance for the Smart Grid Roadmap for Bangladesh Power Utilities”. The BGC conducted the survey under financial support of the US Trade and Development Agency and as a follow-up, the USTDA signed an agreement with Power Cell on June 1 to provide $2 million as grant for the next survey and technical assistance. Read: Exploring Smart Grid to shape future of sustainable energy: Seminar with DPDC held at UIU Power Cell officials said under the agreement, BCG will conduct a more comprehensive and detailed study of the overall power system, as well as of all power utilities, assessing their technical and financial needs. “Actually, a US consulting firm will prepare a roadmap to convert the overall system into a smart grid system where everything will be operated digitally and an automated system will be established replacing the existing manual system,” Mohammad Hossain, director general of Power Cell, told UNB. According to the Power Division’s official statistics, as of September 13, 2023, the country's power generation capacity was 27,834 MW including off-grid renewable and captive power, while the highest generated in a day was 15,648 MW. The length of transmission lines is 14,934 circuit kilometres, there are 63,895 grid substations, and the length of distribution lines is 643,000 km.  The total number of consumers is 45.4 million (4.54 crore) and system loss is 7.65 percent. The government set a target to increase the power generation capacity to 40,000 MW by 2030 and 60,000 MW by 2041. Read: Kuwait launches smart grid exhibition to save power Officials said the government has taken the move to establish the smart grid in order to properly manage the burgeoning system, which has been growing fast on the back of strong economic growth. They said the consulting firm BCG will submit its next report in December, based on which the PGCB and DPDC will undertake pilot projects to implement the smart grid system. Meanwhile, in the report submitted with the initial survey, BGC identified cyber security as a core area where power utilities including the PGCB are lagging behind in ensuring grid security and stability. It identified eight core challenges and 28 technology solutions and initiatives to implement a roadmap for establishing the Smart Grid, while 15 challenges have been identified for the distribution segment of the power sector. The core challenges have been identified as power interruptions, inconsistent power quality, manual operation and limited visibility of assets, increasing variability of supply, improving billing efficiency and reducing non-technical loss, improved customer satisfaction, lack of electric vehicle charging points and incomplete revenue realisation. BCG also identified five challenges for the transmission segment of the power sector, namely high frequency loss, rising transmission loss, manual operation of grid assets and reactive VAR (Volt-Amps Reactive) management.     Lastly two challenges have been identified for the generation segment of the sector: high frequency variation and power interruption.    

The Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has formed a 5-member inquiry committee to investigate the reason behind the grid failure on Tuesday that triggered a countrywide blackout for hours. Yakub Elahi Chowdhury, executive director of the organization, will lead the investigation, said its public relations officer Badruddoza Sumon. Read: Power supply restored in some parts of Dhaka city National power transmission grid failed at 2:05 pm – causing blackouts across Bangladesh, except some parts of the north. Power supply was restored in some parts of Dhaka city under Maniknagar and Hasnabad grid substations and also a good number of districts under Sylhet, Chattagram and Mymensingh by 7 pm. According to officials of the PGCB, it could take two more hours to get electricity supply restored  in all the areas of Dhaka and Narayanganj cities, along with the remaining other districts. “We hope normalcy in power supply will be fully back by 10 pm,” Sumon told UNB. Read: Power blackout triggers chaos in Dhaka petrol pumps He said the districts where power supply was fully restored by 7 pm include Tangail, Kishorganj, Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Manikganj, and all districts in Chattagram and Sylhet divisions. Earlier, after the national power grid failure earlier today, power supply was restored in some Dhaka areas, including president and prime minister’s official residences, around 5pm. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid had hoped that power supply may fully be restored by 7 pm.

Although the government has relaxed the shutdown, enforced to curb the transmission of coronavirus, from May 31, still uncertainty looms large over resuming the field level works in the power transmission projects across the country  due to upcoming monsoon .    “Now most of the ongoing projects will be delayed by at least a year as monsoon will start from July and field level works are not possible before the next winter”, said a top official of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB).          Field-level work on 25 ongoing power transmission projects remained suspended since the coronavirus outbreak in China in December last year, hitting hard the power sector development.   According to official sources, most of these projects were either awarded to Chinese contractors or their equipment were supposed to come largely from China.    “Neither the Chinese workers, nor the equipment are coming from China since the pandemic started in Wuhan,” said Golam Kibria, managing director of PGCB.    He said many Chinese companies are working as subcontractors as well in Bangladesh’s power transmission sector.    The top PGCB official said although coronavirus situation in China has improved, Chinese officials and workers, especially the technicians, are not coming back as the virus situation in Bangladesh is worsening.    “Finding no way, we had to suspend the field-level works on the transmission projects,” he added.     

Field-level work on 25 ongoing power transmission projects remained suspended since the coronavirus outbreak in China, hitting hard the power sector development.   According to official sources, most of these projects were either awarded to Chinese contractors or their equipment were supposed to come largely from China.    “Neither the Chinese workers, nor the equipment are coming from China since the pandemic hit Wuhan,” said a top official at the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB).    He said many Chinese companies are working as subcontractors as well in Bangladesh’s power transmission sector.    The PGCB official said although coronavirus situation in China has improved, Chinese officials and workers, especially the technicians, are not coming back as the situation in Bangladesh is deteriorating. “As a result, we had to suspend the field-level works on the transmission projects,” he added.     

A fire at a grid substation at Ulon in Rampura area led to blackout in vast areas of the city’s southern part.   According to official sources at Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), the fire broke out at the 132/33 kV grid substation around 4pm, but it was not clear what caused the fire.   Soon after the incident, several units of Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control at about 4:50pm, the sources said.   A PGCB official informed that electricity supply in the city’s Motijheel, Rampura, Jatrabari, Lalbagh and Dhanmondi areas was severely disrupted following the fire.   “We’re trying to restore the electricity supply to the areas through alternative means,” a PGCB official told UNB.   He, however, said the substation was recently handed over to Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC).    “But still both the PGCB and DPDC officials were jointly operating the substation,” he said.