A major technical glitch forced the sudden shutdown of a 600-megawatt generation unit at the Matarbari ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. The unexpected malfunction occurred at approximately 12:40 pm, immediately tripping the generator and removing a substantial block of electricity generation from the national grid.
Engineers and technical personnel stationed at the flagship installation in Maheshkhali were immediately dispatched to diagnose the mechanical fault and oversee emergency repair work. Despite the stoppage at the affected unit, the power station’s second 600-megawatt unit has remained operational and continues to feed electricity into the transmission system. Official data from the facility’s control room indicated that the surviving unit was delivering 540 megawatts to the national grid as of 2:59 pm.
Station authorities indicated that technical crews are attempting to resolve the breakdown swiftly, aiming to bring the offline unit back into operation within the day. However, management acknowledged that a full restoration of power output depends entirely on the completion and safety testing of the ongoing repair work.
The Matarbari power complex, featuring two 600-megawatt units with a combined installed capacity of 1,200 megawatts, represents one of Bangladesh’s critical base-load power infrastructure investments designed to stabilize the national grid. The sudden loss of 600 megawatts comes at a precarious moment for the national power sector, which has been grappling with fuel supply constraints and operational pressures across several major thermal power stations.
With evening peak demand looming, the temporary deficit created by the Matarbari outage threatens to exacerbate load-shedding across urban and rural areas. Grid operators face a tight balancing act to manage electricity distribution until the unit is fully restored to commercial operation.
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