National Grid failed due to technical faults: Nasrul Hamid

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Thursday said that the national grid failed on Tuesday due to technical faults and it was not an unusual incident.

“We are verifying the cause of the grid failure. Whether it is technical fault or any sabotage,” he said this while replying to a question at a press briefing at his office in the Secretariat.

Nasrul said two separate probe committees were formed to investigate into the matter seriously and asked them to submit their reports within seven days.

Nasrul said, “We were able to restore power supply quickly on that day because of everyone worked together. After an hour it was started to restore power supply. It was a big deal. Of course, there are technical faults. If we go to pin to pin, it will take some time.”

“For the incident I have formed two committees. One is formed within the power department and the other committee is formed expert from outside the power department,” he said.

Nasrul said the authorities identified the primary cause of the national grid failure was imbalance of demand and generation of power on Tuesday.

“But it will take some time to unearth the cause of the grid failure. Such a disaster may happen, but authorities concerned will be more careful about it,” he said.

Replying to another question about the comments of the BNP leasers on power sector, Nasrul said during the BNP-Jamaat tenure, load shedding was occurred at least 16/17 hours daily, said adding, “So it is not appropriate for them to talk about this technical matter.”

BNP leaders remark about national grid failure, he said, “How BNP leader Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku said that such incident will be happened in future and how he came to know it and how he predicts that in future such incident will take place.”

The state minister said during the BNP-Jamaat tenure, even a single megawatt electricity was added to the national grid, only they put electric poles.

“Whether there was any sabotage or not, it is being investigated the matter along with the technical side,” he said.

Nasrul said the power division will implement smart grid system within two years, as the grid failure will act a major lesson.

When asked what you will do to prevent such incidents, he said the power division has been working for automation, which was not done earlier due to COVID-19.

Nasrul said the nuclear power plant will go for operation in 2024 and another 1000 MW power will be added from solar panels, said adding, “That's why I think if we go to automation very quickly we can make it more stable.”

He said the power restoration work started rapidly after the incident, within an hour, which is a positive sign.