Dhaka Electric

Supply Company
Limited

Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited, commonly known as DESCO, is a public limited
company which distributes electricity at the Northern parts of Dhaka City and Tongi Town of
Gazipur District. The company was created in November 1996 under the Companies Act 1994 as
a Public Limited Company. The company is now under the Power Division of the Bangladesh
Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources[4] and serving a total number of 604,304
consumers as of 31 December 2013.[5] Maksuda Khatun, rank of additional secretary, is the
chairperson of DESCO and Kawsar Amir Ali is the managing director.[6][7]
 Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited

Type Public

Traded as DSE: DESCO (http://www.dsebd.org/displayComp

any.php?name=DESCO) CSE: DESCO (https://w
ww.cse.com.bd/company/companydetails/DES
CO)

Industry Electricity Distribution

Founded (November 3, 1996) in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Headquarters Nikunja-2, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Area served Parts of Northern Dhaka, Purbachal, and Tongi[1]

Revenue 2013: US$ 311.1279 million[2]

Operating income 2014: US$ 14.508 million[2]

Net income 2013: US$ 10.349 million[2]

Total assets 2013: US$ 435.479 million[2]

Total equity 2013: US$ 138.471 million[2]

Number of employees 1573 (2013)[3]

Parent Bangladesh Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral

Resources[4]

Website desco.org.bd (http://desco.org.bd)

Background
Highlighted events
Year Events

2013 Online application for recruitment.

2012 Online application for new connection.

2010 Launching online bill payment system.

2008 Inauguration of Data Acquisition System.

2007 Takeover of Tongi Pourashava and distribution licence from BERC.

2006 Company goes public.

2005 Inauguration of prepaid metering system.

2004 Establishment of sales & distribution divisions.

2003 Takeover of Gulshan area.

1998 Takeover of Mirpur area from DESA.

1996 Certificate of incorporation.

In 1972, the first Government of Bangladesh, in an effort to speed up the investment in the
sector issued an ordinance,[8] creating the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). BPDB,
from 1972 to 1995, has increased the generation capacity in the country from 475 MW to
2818 MW, and the length of its 230  kV and 132  kV transmission networks to 419 km and
2469 km respectively. For the first time in December 1982, the eastern and western halves of the
country were electrically connected through the commissioning of double circuit 230 kV
transmission line across the Jamuna River energized at 132 kV between Ishurdi and Tongi called
the first East-West Inter-connector. Thus 230 kV and 132 kV inter-ties linked the distribution
networks of all major towns and cities had been through.

But from 1986 onwards, the commercial performance of the BPDB deteriorated and in 1991,
BPDB's average gross systems loss was about 42 percent and accounts receivables in excess of
6.5 months of billing. This performance was not found reasonable to the covenants agreed by
the Government and BPDB with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

So in 1990, another ordinance was issued, which was subsequently enacted as an Act
transferring the 132 kV, 33 kV transmission and distribution system in the Greater Dhaka Area
including the Metropolitan City to a newly created Government agency called the Dhaka Electric
Supply Authority (DESA). This was done to lessen the administrative burden on BPDB's
management by relieving it of the burden of managing about 50 percent of the energy
distribution of the entire country.

With the economy performing very well during 1992–95, the demand for electricity grew
substantially. Faced with a grim possibility of serious electricity shortages during the next few
years and to enable the sector to be financially self-sustaining and also attract private capital,
the cabinet approved in principle, the inter-ministerial committee report named "Power Sector
Reforms in Bangladesh (PSRB)".[9][10]

In the meanwhile, the performance of BPDB and DESA have slowly but steadily improved,
although they are by no means near international levels of performance. In view of this
Improvement and the restructuring effort announced by the Government, the development
partners have agreed to resume funding to the sector based on the principle of "Reforms
Fundina Linkaaes" i.e. every project funded by these partners would have components
addressing the reforms decided upon by the Government. The Project has been linked to
redefining the franchise area of DESA and handing over of distribution networks outside
Metropolitan Dhaka City to Rural Electrification Board (REB), and formation of a corporatized
Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) which will initially take over part of the distribution
network of DESA and ultimately take over all its assets. The formation of this company is seen
as an essential step towards " Corporatization and Commercialization" of the sector and to
reduce the excessive inefficiently in the distribution network in the capital.

Organizational structure and workforce management

Name of zones and S&D divisions[11]
Name of zone Name of S&D division

Badda

Baridhara
Gulshan
Joarshahara

Gulshan

Agargaon

Kafrul

Monipur
Mirpur
Pallabi

Rupnagar

Shah Ali

Dakshinkhan

Tongi (East)

Tongi (West)
Uttara
Uttara (East)

Uttara (West)

Uttarkhan

The company's formal organizational structure involves a hierarchical system. The chairman and
the board of directors make up the top of this structure. The executive head of the organization
is the managing director, under whom five executive directors, two general managers, two chief
engineers, twelve superintending engineers, two deputy general managers and one company
secretary operate the executive duties.

To increase effectiveness in its field activities, DESCO has established 16 sales and distribution
(S&D) divisions under 3 operational zones.

Operational zone and sales & distribution (S&D) division

The superintending engineer is in charge of a zone who supervises the executive engineers, the
key responsible person of each S&D Division. Each executive engineer accomplishes his duties
by two sub-divisional engineers, one for system related activities and another for commercial-
related activities. Two assistant engineers act as assisting body under each sub-divisional
engineer.

System related activities include scheduled maintenance, troubleshooting and breakdown

maintenance of substation and switching stations, troubleshooting of customer complaints, line
and equipment maintenance etc. Commercial-related activities include meter reading,
distribution of monthly electricity bills, service disconnection of the defaulter consumer,
customers’ house wiring inspection, new electric connection, meter installation, change of old or
unserviceable meter etc.

DESCO has outsourced a group of experienced workers for field level activities, including other
logistic support services like security service, cleaning service and partial transport service. To
this end, DESCO engaged in several experienced contractors through competitive bidding
process. With the proper maintenance of the distribution system, service complaints from
consumers have been reduced significantly.

The procedure for new connection has been simplified to achieve greater consumer satisfaction
and efforts are on to further reduce the average time now taken. DESCO team tries their best to
give a new connection within 21 working days. To make it more simple and quick DESCO has
launched “Online Application” on 23 February 2012 for new connection[12] and DESCO is the first
distribution company in the country which has started it.

ICT division

The company has a group of IT experts for management information system (MIS) and for
developing new software as on demand. “E-Governance” is such a software developed by the
DESCO IT team which has simplified the new connection related job in a very smart way. This
team is also continuously working for a better complaint management, monthly bill process and
collection, miscellaneous bill collection and correction, maintaining DESCO website and E-mail
Communication and to set up inter-office Wide Area Network (WAN) Connectivity. DESCO
website is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protected and a consumer can pay their monthly bill
easily online using debit or credit cards.[12]

Substation & network division

Name of divisional control centers
Name of zone Name of control center

Mirpur Control (Kafrul)

Mirpur
Agargaon Control

Uttara Control
Uttara
Tongi Control

Gulshan Control
Gulshan
Baridhara Control

DESCO has 26 33/11 kV substations and it has a separate division named Substation & Network
to maintain these substations. The division has an Superintending Engineer under the Chief
Engineer, Network Operation. This division is divided into two departments: Medium Voltage
Substation Maintenance & Commissioning (MVSSMC) and Grid & Protection (G & P). Services
including electric power substation inspection, troubleshooting of any equipment operation,
testing of any substation relay for proper operation, testing and commissioning, test reporting
are done by these two departments.

DESCO's Central Control, located at Gulshan, is under the Substation & Network division for
optimal scheduling and dispatch of electricity among the 6 divisional control centers. To enable
this, the control centre is equipped with a reliable communication network, an accurate data
acquisition system (DAS) and a visual display system for live data received from various
locations. It was also proposed that a fully equipped supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) system was established, for a more reliable and faster data processing and data
formatting system.

Development & project and Planning & design division

Electricity is a constantly developing technology and to be consistent with this development

DESCO has two separate division for Development & Project and Planning & Design. A project is
typically managed by the project division in the five following steps:

i. Identification of need and development of the concept.

ii. Analysis of the options and approval.

iii. Implementation.
 iv. Evaluation.

v. Future plans.

DESCO has completed a study to ascertain load demand and consumer growth in the area up to
the year 2030 with 5 years phasing. The report shows that the load demand of DESCO will
increase to 1,129 MVA by the year 2015, to 1,910 MVA by the year 2020, to 3,489 MVA by the
year 2025 and to 6,288 MVA by the year 2030. Accordingly, DESCO has prepared a plan to cater
this increasing load demand. For this purpose, 117 new 33/11 kV substations and 28 new
132/33 kV grid substations will be required along with upgrades of some existing substations.
Presently a number of projects are in an implementation stage under the "Sustainable Power
Sector Development Program" (SPSDP)[13] and on turnkey basis by DESCO's own fund.[2] In
partnership with others, the Planning & Design division supports to plan and implement these
projects in a disciplined way.

Controversy

On 24 January 2000, three senior officials including the managing director of DESCO were fired
for failure to perform their duty.[14] In 2008, Senior Special Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque
issued arrest warrants against the managing director of DESCO Saleh Ahmed, former Chairman
of Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (the predecessor of DESCO) Towhidul Islam, and thirteen
others.[15]

In 2016, the Government plan to replace all electric meters with prepaid ones ran into trouble
due to lack of skilled manpower and corruption. The low-level DESCO employees also feared
being laid off after the installation of prepaid meters.[16] On 13 January 2020, Bangladesh Anti
Corruption Commission raided the office of DESCO over the alleged purchase of substandard
prepaid electricity meters.[17]

In March 2017, three employees of DESCO, Director General AHM Nurul Huda executive director
Rafiuddin, and manager Khandaker Nazibul Alam, were suspended on allegations of embezzling
9.1 million taka from the company.[18]

Following the Covid-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh DESCO meter readers could not read the
electric meters in-person during the lock down so DESCO made bills based on estimates leading
to "exorbitant bills" for consumers.[19]

See also
 Bangladesh Power Development Board

Electricity sector in Bangladesh

List of power stations in Bangladesh

Power Grid Company of Bangladesh

West Zone Power Distribution Company

References

1. "ঢাকা ইলেকট্রিক সাপ্লাই কোম্পানি লিমিটেড (ডেসকো)" (http://desco.gov.bd/site/page/8479861f-c208-48b3-9

04a-8d9d3b56c4fe/https%3A%2F%2Fptop.only.wip.la%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fdesco.gov.bd%2Fsite%2Fpage%2F8479861f-c208-48b3-904a-8d9d3
b56c4fe%2F-) . desco.gov.bd.

2. "Annual Report 2013,DESCO" (https://www.desco.org.bd/index.php?page=profit-and-loss) . DESCO.

3. "Manpower Set-up of DESCO" (https://www.desco.org.bd/index.php?page=man_power) . DESCO.

Retrieved 14 January 2014.

4. "Power Division" (http://www.powerdivision.gov.bd/) . Bangladesh Ministry.

5. "Monthly Operational Data" (https://www.desco.org.bd/index.php?page=monthly-operational-data) .

DESCO. Retrieved Jan 12,2014.

6. "Mst. Maksuda Khatun" (https://www.desco.org.bd/uploads/pdf/chairperson_profile.pdf) (PDF).

desco.org.bd. Retrieved 14 June 2020.

7. "Kawsar Amir Ali DESCO's new Managing Director" (https://tbsnews.net/bangladesh/energy/kawsar-amir

-ali-descos-new-managing-director-58615) . The Business Standard. 2020-03-19. Retrieved 2020-06-13.

8. "The Bangladesh Power Development Boards Order, 1972" (https://web.archive.org/web/2014012103210

5/http://www.powerdivision.gov.bd/user/brec/62/78) . Power Division. Retrieved Jan 14,2014. Archived
from the original (http://www.powerdivision.gov.bd/user/brec/62/78) on 2014-01-21. Retrieved
2014-01-19.

9. "Power Sector Reforms in Bangladesh" (http://www.oecd.org/countries/bangladesh/47150120.pdf)

(PDF). Asian Development Bank.

10. "Proposed Power Sector Development Policy" (http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServe

r/IW3P/IB/2008/06/02/000333038_20080602042247/Rendered/PDF/436690PGD0P1071nly10IDAR200
81015911.pdf) (PDF). World Bank.

11. "S&D's and Offices of DESCO" (https://www.desco.org.bd/index.php?page=s-d-s-and-offices) . .

Retrieved 23 July 2013.
 12. "Notice published at the dailies" (https://www.desco.org.bd/index.php?page=news) . . Retrieved April
09,2012.

13. "Sustainable Power Sector Development Program" (http://www.adb.org/projects/36107-013/main) .

ADB. Retrieved 16 January 2014.

14. "DESCO MD, 2 directors fired" (https://www.thedailystar.net/news/desco-md-2-directors-fired) . The

Daily Star. 2000-01-24. Retrieved 2020-06-13.

15. "Arrest warrants against DESA, DESCO chiefs" (https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-39326) . The

Daily Star. 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-13.

16. "Corrupt officials stall pre-paid electricity meter project" (https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/corr

uption/2016/10/17/corrupt-officials-stall-pre-paid-electricity-meter-project) . Dhaka Tribune. 2016-10-
17. Retrieved 2020-06-13.

17. "ACC raids Desco office over substandard metre purchase" (https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/
corruption/2020/01/13/acc-raids-desco-office-over-substandard-metre-purchase) . Dhaka Tribune.
2020-01-13. Retrieved 2020-06-13.

18. "3 Desco officials suspended over embezzlement" (https://www.banglanews24.com/national/article/600

43/3-Desco-officials-suspended-over-embezzlement) . banglanews24.com. 2017-03-28. Retrieved
2020-06-13.

19. "Inflated electricity bills irk consumers" (https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/inflated-electricity-bi

lls-irk-consumers-1589989431) . The Financial Express. Dhaka. Retrieved 2020-06-13.

External links

Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (https://www.desco.org.bd/)

চাকরির খবর – ঢাকা সিটি কর্পোরেশন নিয়োগ ২০২০ (https://www.careerhelpbd.com/job-circula
r/%e0%a6%9a%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%95%e0%a6%b0%e0%a6%bf%e0%a6%b0-%e0%a6%96%e0%a
6%ac%e0%a6%b0-%e0%a6%a2%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%95%e0%a6%be-%e0%a6%b8%e0%a6%bf%e
0%a6%9f%e0%a6%bf-%e0%a6%95%e0%a6%b0%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%aa/)

Ministry Of Education moedu Job Circular 2020 (https://www.careerhelpbd.com/job-circular/

ministry-of-education-moedu-job-circular-2020/)
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Last edited 1 month ago by Shahimrancoxbd