Perfect timing: One-hour time leap for Bangladesh.
Energy is a scarce commodity in any developing countries. Power cuts are frequent, and demand for
electricity is increasing with every passing day. In this situation, the
government is bound to take some effective measures to tackle the problem. Generation of more power is the need of the hour, but that is not possible as huge sums of money and gestation time both act against the will of the government. Therefore, the option left with the government is to adapt the policy of advancing the clock, which many countries have already put into use. The idea is to bring forward the closing time of offices, business centers, and other evening activities by an hour before the sunset saving one hour of electricity. In addition, people would put-off their house electric points, especially lights, one hour before the usual time if they maintain the same timing of going to bed. The question is whether people would be able to adjust with their biological clock immediately. The decision of the government is ok, but not the long-term solution of power shortage.
At present Bangladesh’s time is GMT +6 hours, which will become now GMT + 7 hours. The country will reset all clocks on Friday night at 11 P.M. making it 12 midnight. This new time set will continue up to October 1, then again the country will revert to the old time by resetting the clock one hour back. Bangladesh is predominantly a Muslim nation, and the prayer times have to be changed according to the new timings. The government declared that the timings of educational institutions would remain unchanged, whereas market places that remain open until 8 P.M. will have one hour of daytime while closing at 8 P.M. according to the new timings.
How much savings of electricity would result is not precisely known; however, the authorities in the energy ministry expect to save approximately 5% in this way that is 200 MW in unit terms. The daily mismatching of demand and supply is huge in the peak hours, and is about 1000 to 2000 MW less than the demand. This cause load shedding of few hours everyday inevitably. The advancing of the clock will help in reducing demand by approximately 20%, sources revealed.
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