Ensure uninterrupted gas and electricity supply

Dhaka and Chittagong city dwellers have been experiencing severe gas supply interruptions for several days. Meanwhile, the frequency of load shedding has increased along with it. Consumers have suffered due to increased load shedding and gas supply crisis. Gas pressure is low almost all day in some areas in the capital. Many people have complained that they couldn’t cook due to low pressure of gas. Many are compelled to cook at night due to the interrupted gas supply in daytime. Again, the authorities concerned have neither any clear explanation nor any remedy to these crises.

According to the news published in the media on Thursday (July 11), the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has been low for about one and a half months due to the closure of a terminal. Meanwhile, another accident caused a hole in the pipeline last Tuesday (July 9) night. This has further reduced the supply of LNG to the national gas grid. Industrial, residential and power sectors are facing gas crisis. Production has stopped at several power plants. Load shedding has increased since last Wednesday in the country.

Due to reduced supply of gas, consumers are struggling to light their cooking stoves in different areas of the country including the capital. Production in factories had already decreased due to lack of gas supply. Several power plants were shut down on Thursday. The volume of electricity production went down to 4,000 megawatt from 6,000 megawatts on Thursday afternoon. As the electricity supply is reduced compared to the demand, load shedding is being occurred outside of Dhaka every few hours.

Consumers complaint that they are not getting desired services despite of the repeated elevation of gas and electricity prices. People's life is already exhausted by the intense heat. The frequent load shedding is adding insult to injury. People concerned said that as the emphasis was on increasing power generation, no steps were taken to increase extraction of gas as the primary fuel for running these power plants. Even 15 years ago where 200 million cubic feet of gas was extracted, the volume is still the same. Since 2009, residential gas connection has been shut off. It is still closed. But the gas supply situation has not improved much. Now the nation is being burdened by importing LNG at high prices. Therefore, if gas and electricity are not supplied properly, the production will be interrupted and it will not be possible to send the goods abroad on time. As a result there may be fear of cancellation of export orders.

The government came under a lot of pressure after the fuel price hike two years ago. Scheduled load shedding was underway in the country at that time. Then the price of gas is increased. And in this way, the cost of each family has increased several times due to the gradual increase in the prices of gas, electricity, fuel and water. As a result, inflation has increased. Experts believe that the way out of this is to extract coal from local coal mines. Besides taking effective steps to increase gas extraction from land and sea. In that case, if steps had been taken earlier, the power plant would not have been closed due to lack of gas supply. Also uninterrupted gas supply to industries could be ensured. Foreign cucould be saved. Therefore, there is no alternative to take new initiatives to bring the country out of the dependent energy policy to overcome the electricity and gas crisis.