Power back in Bangladesh after grid failure causes blackout

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Electricity supply across Bangladesh has been restored after the South Asian country plunged into a blackout following the failure of its national power grid. The blackout, which impacted much of the country, started at 2:05 p.m. on Tuesday and lasted for nearly seven hours before power was completely restored at 9 p.m. It was not immediately clear what caused the glitch. Bangladesh’s recent impressive economic growth has been threatened by power shortages since the government suspended operations of all diesel-run power plants to reduce costs for imports as prices have soared. The diesel-run power plants produced about 6% of Bangladesh’s power generation, so their shutdowns cut output by up to 1500 megawatts.