The South Asian country of Bangladesh experienced a massive power outage Tuesday, the largest ever in the world. According to The Sun, over 80 percent of the nation–around 140 million people–were left powerless.
What happened:
The Power Development Board said the blackout took place shortly after 2:00 p.m. The power company determined that the outage was caused by a grid failure, though, it is not known what led to it.
Certain areas in the northwest region of the country were unaffected. However, spokesman Shamim Ahsan said, “the rest of the country is without power.” He also alleged the power outage was caused by a technical malfunction and said the situation is “still under investigation.”
Further outages:
Half of the homes that lost power had their power restored by the evening. In a post on Facebook, Zunaid Palak, Technology Minister, said power would be restored by 8 p.m. in the nation’s capital city of Dhaka, where some 22 million plus people reside.
In recent months, Bangladesh has been experiencing a major power crisis due to the global increase in energy prices. Since July, the country has mandated cuts in an attempt to conserve electricity, with outages lasting up to 13 hours a day.
The country’s electricity grid:
This has greatly affected the country’s electricity grid as utilities have struggled to source enough gas and diesel to meet citizens’ needs.
Bangladesh has also been unable to import enough fossil fuels and has been forced it to close some of its diesel plants and gas-fired power stations.
