<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The country experienced about 1000 MW of load shedding in electricity supply on Monday against soaring demand. According to the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) at the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), the country’s demand was recorded at 15,220 MW at 3pm on Monday, when the load shedding was 996 MW.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, the demand forecast for Monday evening was 15,666 MW and supply forecast was 16,200 MW.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to official sources, maximum burden of the loadshedding was diverted to rural areas, as part of a policy to avert power outages in capital Dhaka and other large cities. Reports from different areas said the extent of loadshedding is aggravating the plight of the rural people amid the sweltering heat this summer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Meanwhile, state-owned Petrobangla’s official data shows that the country’s gas production was 3,046 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) against a demand for 3,760 MW.<br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It shows that a good number of power plants, specifically those using gas as their primary fuel, remained off generation due to gas shortage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The power plants received a supply of 1349.9 MMCFD gas against their demand for 2316.9 MMCFD, the data shows. Source: UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/fas</div>