Area-based power outages for one to two hours begin today across the country as the government has decided to suspend the operation of diesel-fired power plants amid the growing power and energy crisis.

Keeping fuel oil pumps shut for a day in a week was also suggested at a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday against the backdrop of the crisis worsened due to the war between Russia and Ukraine that began on February 24.

Prime minister’s adviser for power, energy and mineral resources Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury told reporters after the meeting that suspension of power generation from diesel would help ease the crisis.

He noted that power generation through diesel became expensive following the price hike of the item in the international market.

Such a decision would cause a power shortfall of around 1,200 megawatts daily and outages for an overall two hours in four spells in some areas of the country, the PM’s energy adviser said.

Research director Khondoker Golam Moazzem of the local think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue said that power outages would have serious implications on life and businesses against the backdrop of 50 per cent over capacity in power production.

The power generation over capacity is believed to have cost Bangladesh about Tk 26,000 crore in idle plants in the financial year 2021-22.

Power cuts should be designed in areas such a way so that production in mills and factories face minimum impact, Golam Moazzem said, adding that prior announcement would be more beneficial for the people.

The day’s meeting at PMO was a sequel to the previous one held on July 7 on the same power and energy issue.

The PM energy adviser predicted that power outages would last until September and said that the meeting weighed up several austerity measures like reducing office duty by two hours, introducing home office and reducing the use of air conditioners to check the power shortfall.

A decision about reducing office hours or introducing virtual offices to save electricity will be taken soon, state minister for public administration Farhad Hossain told a local news agency a few hours after the new government announcement regarding the power austerity.

The decision will be finalised within a week, he said.

State minister for power and energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid in a separate press briefing at the secretariat on the day told reporters that power outages for about one hour would be carried out for the next week initially.

Duration of the power cut may increase if the initially planned hours proved to be insufficient, he said.

He said that Bangladesh Petro Petroleum Corporation had been asked to consult with the transport operators and petrol pump owners association for implementation of the suggestion of keeping fuel oils stations shut for a day in a week.

Religious institutions like mosques, temples and churches have been requested to go for power-saving measures, he said. They should keep operating air conditioners just during the prayer time, he added.

Consumer Association of Bangladesh energy adviser Professor Shamsul Alam said that the use of air coolers should be banned in public offices and the establishment should set the first example of what it meant as austerity measures.

Public offices account for the highest amount of power consumption for air coolers, he said, adding that the supply of fuel oil to public representatives and officers should also be cut.

The state minister for power and energy and mineral resources also said that they would strictly impose the previously-taken decision of keeping markets and shopping malls shut after 8:00pm.

He said that the closure of diesel-run power plants would save 10 per cent on petrol import and another 10 per cent could be saved through conservative consumption of diesel in the transport sector.

Power Development Board officials said that the country has about 10 diesel-run power plants having 1200 MW, mostly in the private sector.

The government for the last few weeks was running a few other dual-fuel power plants with diesel amid gas supply shortage, said a high official, adding that they would now also be shut to save energy costs.

Answering a question, Power Cell director general Mohammad Hossain said no discussion was made to suspend the generation of power by diesel-fired captive power plants of private sector operators.

He said that the decision was taken only for diesel-fired power plants connected to the national grid.

PDB claimed that there was no power cut on Monday as the country’s power plants produced 13,143mg on the day against the same amount of demand.

Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited, a leading power distribution company, on its website, posted a possible power cut schedule for different areas for July 19.

Area-based power-cut schedule for July 19 is also available on different power supply companies’ websites.

The power cut was a common feature in most parts of the country in the 2000s.

The present government has increased power generation capacity to around 25,000 megawatts against half of the demand.

For the unutilised production capacity, the government paid over Tk 13,000 crore to operators of 35 private power plants in the financial year 2020-21, said a report released by the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt in March 2022.

Of the amount, 12 companies took more than Tk 8,730 crore in capacity charges, accounting for more than 66 per cent of the total money paid in the financial year by the government to the idle private power plants.

The amount of capacity payment to idle power plants was expected to go double in FY22.