Power Grid Bangladesh PLC reports that meeting most of the country’s daily electricity demand — now averaging more than 16,000 megawatts — by importing power from distant plants and abroad is causing heavy transmission losses, while gas shortages are keeping the country’s high-capacity, cost-efficient plants idle.

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution PLC covers gas supply for at least 6,000 megawatts of gas-based power generation capacity. But those plants receive only 27 percent of the gas they need to run. The fuel squeeze forces Dhaka to draw electricity from faraway plants such as Adani, Payra and Rampal.

Senior officials at the Power Grid Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) say gas and fuel oil shortages have pushed the BPDB to rely on distant stations. That leaves large gas-fired plants near the capital sitting idle, raises transmission costs, deepens Power Grid’s losses and stokes significant upward pressure on electricity prices.

The 20 gas-fired plants managed by Titas, with a combined capacity of 6,076 MW, require 996 million cubic feet of gas a day to run at full capacity. But actual supply is a little over 270 million cubic feet.

According to Petrobangla, all units of the 1,315 MW Ghorashal plant in Narsingdi are shut because of the gas shortage. That plant alone needs 148 million cubic feet daily. The shortage has also idled a 718 MW high-capacity plant at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj.

Meghnaghat hosts three highly efficient and cost-effective plants totalling 2,000 MW. BPDB cannot secure enough gas to run them simultaneously. A reliable source said that under gas rationing, one or two of the three must be kept shut at any given time.

The gas crunch has also forced the closure of plants connected to the Titas network: Aggreko (145 MW), Siddhirganj (240 MW), HPS (100 MW), EGCB’s 412 MW unit, a 450 MW IPP at Meghnaghat, Summit-Meghnaghat (335 MW), RPCL (210 MW), REB’s Madhabdi (37 MW), Ashulia (34 MW), Maona in Gazipur (33 MW), Rupganj (33 MW), HPL (360 MW) and Regent (108 MW).

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution PLC Managing Director Shahnewaz Parvez told Bonik Barta the company cannot secure gas in line with its daily requirement, causing acute shortages for power stations and households alike. “A daily gas supply of more than 300 million cubic feet is enough to meet demand across all customers served by Titas. Current allocations have fallen to below 270 million cubic feet a day,” he said.

“The allocation depends entirely on Petrobangla’s allocation. If the gas comes through, supply to power plants and all other customers will normalise. Beyond that, Titas alone can do nothing,” Parvez said.

The shortfall in gas-fired generation has forced Power Grid Bangladesh to wheel electricity from distant plants, inflicting large system losses on the state transmission company. PGCB has slipped into financial distress and proposed raising charges across three transmission line categories to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC). Transmission tariffs have already been increased.

In its submission to BERC, PGCB cited the long transmission lines required to bring electricity from India’s Adani Power to load centres. Conveying power from the large coal-fired plant at Payra in Patuakhali has also steeply raised the company’s costs.

PGCB sources said system losses across transmission and distribution entities persist, and the overall loss burden is mounting. Transmission losses stand at 3.04 percent for the 2025–26 fiscal year, against 3.13 percent the previous year. Those figures are not yet final. Officials expect the year-end transmission loss to overshoot the prior year’s level.

A senior PGCB official told Bonik Barta anonymously that the gas crisis is compelling the company to draw electricity from remote plants to meet BPDB’s demand, driving up transmission losses. “To cut costs, plants near Dhaka must be kept running under merit order dispatch,” the official said.

On the tariff increase, the official added, “We’ve fully explained the reasons for the transmission losses to BERC, and the transmission tariff has been raised accordingly. Bringing losses down in the future will require far greater use of the power stations close to the load centre. That would make a significant reduction in transmission losses possible.”