Large parts of Bangladesh were left without power for several hours after a failure of the country’s national grid.
The grid glitch struck at around 2 pm local time on Tuesday 4 October, leaving around 80% of the South Asian state without electricity. The majority of supplies had been restored by around 9 pm.
According to state officials at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), the incident was caused by a transmission line tripping in the eastern part of the country.
This forced all the power plants offline, leading to blackouts in the capital Dhaka and major cities.
Bangladesh generates more than three-quarters of its electricity from imported natural gas. High global prices driven up by Russia’s war in Ukraine have resulted in some gas supply rationing, with many manufacturing plants left without electricity for several hours a day.
While the government has also closed many of the nation’s diesel-run power plants as a cost-cutting measure. These stations account for around 6% (1,500 MW) of Bangladesh’s power generation.
Bangladesh – A History Of Power Problems
Back in November 2014, Bangladesh was struck by another nationwide power outage. The entire population was without electricity for up to 10 hours after a substation failure led to a complete grid shutdown.
It is thought to be one of the world’s biggest ever blackouts affecting around 150 million people.
While a previous power cut in May 2017 affected supplies in 32 districts throughout the country.
