Customers of Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited (Nesco) will now be able to pay their bills through Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL). A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was exchanged Thursday at a Dhaka hotel. Mohammed Monirul Moula, managing director and CEO of IBBL, and Zakiul Islam, managing director of Nesco, handed over the papers. Read:IBBL, Max Hospital sign MoU Md Omar Faruk Khan, additional managing director of IBBL, Md Mahboob Alam, senior executive vice-president of the bank, and Syed Golam Ahammad, executive director (finance) of Nesco, were also present. Nesco provides electricity services in 16 districts of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions.

The district administration formed a five-member probe committee Friday after the sudden fire at the Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited (NESCO) 33/11 thousand kV sub-station in Naogaon. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mohammad Harun ur Rashid formed the committee on Friday noon after inspecting the damaged 33/11 thousand kV sub-station. Additional District Magistrate Razia Sultana was made convener of the probe committee which has been asked to submit an investigation report within the next three working days. Read: Fire in power substation triggers outage in Naogaon On Friday 7:30 am, seven breakers in the power control room caught fire with a sudden load noise resulting power supply cut off in Naogaon, Sadar upazila, Raninagar, some parts of Atrai upazila as well as Shantahar and Adamdighi areas of Bogura district. On information, four units of Naogaon Fire Service brought the fire under control after trying for about an hour. However, no casualties were reported.

A major fire broke out at the Kathaltali power substation in the early hours of Friday, leading to an outage in Naogaon and Santahar municipal areas. Officials said the fire originated in the control room of the substation around 5.30am. Three fire tenders were soon pressed into service but it took them nearly three hours to contain the blaze. However, the substation fire has knocked out power to lakhs of homes in Naogaon and Santahar. Also read: Govt fails to take power from Payra plant, counts huge losses in capacity payment According to the Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited (NESCO) office in Naogaon, the fire started in six breakers of the control room. The officials present there had tried to douse the flames before the arrival of the fire tenders. Executive engineer (sales and distribution) of NESCO, Monir Hossain, said, “The exact reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained, but we suspect an electrical glitch. A probe has been ordered." Also read: Fire breaks out at Savar warehouse, 20 injured A team of senior officials, including the chief engineer of Rajshahi, has reached the substation to restore power supply to the affected areas at the earliest, he added.

Electricity consumers of Rajshahi city started getting smart pre-paid meter (SPPM)  as State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid inaugurated the installation of 500,000 meters on Thursday through a virtual function.

An employee of Northern Electricity Supply Company Ltd (NESCO) of Chapainawabganj died of coronavirus at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital early Sunday.