Power has been restored to most of Bangladesh after the world’s largest blackout left 140 million without electricity for several hours on Tuesday. The outage affected approximately 80% of the nation’s 168 million residents.
Power outages hit large swathes of the Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, and Mymensingh divisions after the grid failure in the eastern zone on October 4.
The trouble started around 2 p.m. local time due to a “technical glitch,” according to the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PCGB), the Daily Star reported. It is still unclear what caused the blackout.
Officials at the PGCB and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDP) said the transmission line tripped somewhere in the eastern portion of the country, east of the Jumani River. Following the grid failure, all power plants tripped off one after the other throughout the country.
As the daylight faded into darkness in Bangladesh, shopkeepers carried on their business using flashlights and candles to illuminate their workspaces, and people lined up to buy fuel for their generators.
The loss of power affected factories in the export-oriented garment industry, which produces clothing for clients such as Gap Inc., Walmart, H&M, and American Eagle Outfitters.
In addition, the outage disrupted internet and mobile services in some parts of the country, Reuters reported.
Badruddoza Sumon, a public relations officer for PGCB, said most areas of Dhaka and other districts had power again by 9 p.m., The Daily Star reported. Shameem Hasan, in charge of public relations for the BPDP, said that the rest of the country would have power restored by 11 p.m. local time.
Bangladesh has experienced a power crisis due to the rising prices of energy spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the U.S. Sun, and the power grid has suffered as utilities struggle to secure enough fuel to meet demand.
As a result, the country has periodically imposed power cuts on its citizens to conserve electricity, with some cuts in July lasting as long as 13 hours.
Likely due in part to these building tensions, Tuesday’s blackouts sparked widespread public anger and prompted the mobilization of large demonstrations on the streets of Dhaka, the capital city, the U.S. Sun reported.
The country’s last major unscheduled blackout occurred in 2014, when 70% of Bangladesh had no power for about 10 hours.
