The power demand reached nearly 15,000 megawatts on Sunday as a parts of five divisions in the country on the day amid forecast of the hot spell continuing for at least two more days.
The capital has been under the spell of the heatwave with a temperature rise of more than 1C since Saturday. The maximum day temperature in Dhaka was recorded to be 36C on Sunday.
Except the Dhaka city, where massive traffic congestions caused immense sufferings, especially to fasting Muslims, a total of 11 districts in five divisions were under the spell of the heatwave.
The districts are Faridpur, Manikganj, Rajshahi, Pabna, Sirajganj, Rangamati, Khulna, Bagerhat, Jashore, Chuadanga and Patuakhali.
Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum temperature of 37.7C was recorded in Sirajganj.
鈥楾he heatwave is going to stay for one or two more days,鈥� said Muhammad听 Abul Kalam Mallik, a meteorologist at the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
At 2:00pm on Sunday, the power demand peaked at 14,680MW.
Until 4:00pm on Sunday, the maximum load shedding of 263MW was recorded at 11:00am, when the maximum power demand was 13,280MW.
The power demand is predicted to reach 17,000MW this summer, which has just begun. Severe fuel and dollar shortages are likely to keep many power plants shut during the summer just like in the past.
Bangladesh鈥檚 current installed power generation capacity is 28,535MW.
This is the second heatwave Bangladesh is experiencing this year. The first heatwave lasted 24 hours. The ongoing heatwave began on Saturday.
March is the first month of the three-month pre-monsoon season, the hottest time of year. April is the hottest month when day temperature often surpasses 40C.
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