Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited

About Us

The electricity supply industry in South Asia started with the commissioning of the first power station in the 1890s. Although a number on small stations were constructed over the next 20 years, these stations were isolated, catering to small distribution networks serving the major urban centers.    The first effort to structure a legal framework for the industry came in 1910 with the enactment of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910. This Act sought to regulate the business of industry...

The electricity supply industry in South Asia started with the commissioning of the first power station in the 1890s. Although a number on small stations were constructed over the next 20 years, these stations were isolated, catering to small distribution networks serving the major urban centers.    The first effort to structure a legal framework for the industry came in 1910 with the enactment of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910. This Act sought to regulate the business of industry still based on the old concept of isolated privately owned distribution networks fed by small generation stations & essentially defined the rights & obligations of the supplier and the consumer.    In 1947, at the time of independence of India & Pakistan, the installed generating capacity in the then East Pakistan was only 21 MW. Electricity was available to only a small elite in the district and sub-divisional headquarters. The distribution networks in these cities were isolated and were fed by coal fired steam power plants or diesel generation. In an effort to expeditiously augment generation capacity to feed a development economy, the then Government of Pakistan issued and ordinance in 1959 creating the East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EWAPDA). The Ordinance essentially provided for the Governments takeover of all generation, Transmission and distribution facilities from the private sector, thereby creating a total Government monopoly in the sector. During 1960 to 1970 the generation capacity of the then East Pakistan rose from 88MW to 475 MW, supplied largely by natural gas and oil fired, steam power and hydro plants. The networks of Dhaka and Chittagong and then been interconnected albeit with weak 132 KV links.