Bangladesh officially recorded a 2,506 MW electricity shortage at the peak load-shedding hour at 5:00 pm on April 15, with 58 per cent of the country’s power plants remaining partially or fully unused because of a fuel shortage or engine problems.

Official data released by the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh showed the generation of 11,381 MW of electricity at 5:00 pm against the demand for 14,100 MW from a power fleet with an installed capacity of 23,482 MW, except for captive power capacity.

At the peak load-shedding hour, Bangladesh had more than 50 per cent of its capacity unused, which would be higher if the captive generation capacity of 2,800MW is taken into account. As of April 15, 147 power plants were available for production, according to the PGCB, with 85 of the plants operating not at all or at less than full capacity.

The fuel shortage disrupted production in 56 power plants while machine or engine problems in 29 plants. A total of 13 more power plants were under maintenance while five other plants operated at a lower capacity as part of a contingency plan.

On the other hand, in FY22, the government paid almost Tk 24,000 crore in capacity charges, which is set to increase in the current financial year with frequent gas and electricity price hikes.

This exposes the fake claims of the Awami League government about electricity production capacity.