Years of declining gas supplies have reduced output at the Shambhuganj facility, leaving towns and villages across Mymensingh to cope with prolonged outages and stalled production.
A state-owned 210-megawatt power plant in Bangladesh’s northern Mymensingh region has remained completely shut for 26 days because of a gas shortage, worsening load shedding across the division and disrupting businesses and daily life.
The Rural Power Company Limited (RPCL) plant at Shambhuganj in Mymensingh has stopped generating electricity, while production at two other privately owned power plants in the region has fallen by half.
The shortages have led to severe load shedding across Mymensingh division, with consumers reporting eight to 10 hours of outages a day in the district town and an even worse situation in rural areas.
A H M Rashed, managing director of RPCL in Mymensingh, said electricity generation and supply could return to normal once gas supplies resumed.
RPCL said the 210-megawatt plant was built at Shambhuganj at a cost of nearly Tk1,500 crore to meet electricity demand in the Mymensingh region. The project was implemented by RPCL, a state-owned power sector company.
The pipeline built to supply gas to the plant was implemented by the Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL). A recent gas shortage has reduced electricity generation at the plant to zero.
With the plant out of operation for 26 days, severe load shedding has spread across Mymensingh division, affecting factory production and disrupting daily life.
The plant was originally built in 1997 to meet electricity demand in the region, with demand projections also based on expectations that the area would develop into an industrial zone.
Nearly Tk1,500 crore was invested in the project in three phases. But the plant has struggled with gas shortages for years. Gas supplies began declining particularly after the country’s gas shortage intensified following 2007.
RPCL officials said the 210-megawatt plant had in recent years been unable to generate more than 30 to 35 megawatts of electricity. The situation has persisted for years, while the company’s annual reports have also reflected the plant’s weak generation performance caused by the gas shortage.
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, monthly generation at the plant fell below 40 megawatts in some months. Its plant factor stood at 45 percent in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
In the previous 2021-22 fiscal year, the plant factor had ranged between 65 and 70 percent, showing a continued decline in production because of the gas shortage. The plant had continued operating under those conditions until the latest gas shortage left it completely idle for 26 days.
The shutdown has sharply increased load shedding across Mymensingh division. Rural areas are experiencing 12 to 15 hours of outages a day, while district towns face three to four hours, affecting farmers as well as elderly people and children.
Consumers, however, complained that electricity was available for only six to seven hours during the day and night combined, leaving them without power for 17 to 18 hours out of 24.
Shefali Akter, a woman entrepreneur and resident of the Kanchijhuli area of Mymensingh city, said load shedding had become far more frequent.
“Previously, there would be load shedding once or twice. Now there are four to five power cuts every day from morning to afternoon. The same thing is happening at night,” she said.
“Each time, the load shedding lasts for an hour. On top of that, there is a persistent gas shortage at home. On one side there is load shedding and on the other there is no gas. How are we supposed to cook? It has become impossible. Nobody is saying when this crisis will end. We are not getting any good news either. Living like this has become difficult.”
According to the local electricity department, different parts of Mymensingh city experience three to four hours of load shedding a day.
Residents disputed that figure, saying the city was facing eight to 10 hours of outages daily. They said they would not be suffering as much if load shedding were limited to three or four hours.
RPCL Managing Director Rashed said the 210-megawatt power plant had remained completely shut for 26 days because of the gas shortage.
The resulting generation deficit has affected the country’s power sector, he said, with load shedding increasing particularly sharply in Mymensingh division.
“Ordinary people cannot even cook. They often have to remain without electricity. People are suffering greatly. But if the problem is resolved and we receive gas supplies, we will be able to resume production,” he said.
