Probe into national grid failure yet to be completed

The seven-member probe committee tasked with identifying the reasons behind the failure of the national grid on October 4 is yet to complete its report that was due within three days of its formation.

Public Relations Officer of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Muhammad Suman said they may submit the report to the ministry next week.

On October 4, at 2:00pm, the national grid of the country fell for seven hours. The crew of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh had restored electricity by 8:00pm in some areas while full restoration came an hour later.

On October 6, the Power Division formed a seven-member committee to identify the reasons behind the blackout and submit recommendations to avert the recurrence of such incidents.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Power Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Nasrul Hamid told the media that there is an imbalance between production and demand in the eastern region that forced the grid to fail.

The system drops below the frequency range and under-frequency causes the power system to trip (shut down) the power plants in the eastern region. To avoid such outages there is no alternative to full system automation. Our circulation system is very backward. More modern arrangements should be made.

The state minister said that there was a shortage of power generation in the eastern region around 2:00pm on that day. Some 1,100 megawatts of electricity were being supplied from the western region to the eastern region.

During the incident, two circuits of 230KV in Ashuganj and Sirajganj and two circuits in Ghorashal tripped, resulting in the disconnection of electricity between the eastern and western regions.

As a result, there was an imbalance between production and demand in the eastern region.

The system drops below the frequency range and the under frequency destabilizes the power system causing power outages tripping the power plants in the eastern region.