Daylight Saving Time and energy management

So far only thirty percent of our total population has access to electricity. So we have a long way to go, and far from reality to provide electricity for all by the year 2020. There is no doubt that the power crisis is likely to be more in summer 2005 than last year despite two power plants, Shiddirganj 210 MW and Tongi 80 MW, will be added in power system after a long gap. Where addition of new electricity consumers is a part of the development process, small addition of power generation capacity after a long gap cannot make any significant improvement. Majority of consumers cannot expect any relief from load shedding during the long summer period of our country. Besides, low quality of power supply damages equipment, particularly burning of motors used by the farmers for irrigation during hot summer months.

In this situation, it is the responsibility of the consumers, too, to give some thoughts on energy management which is being practiced in many countries around the world, mostly in the developed countries like European Union and North America. This is Day Light Saving Time (DST).

The idea of Day Light Saving Time (DST) was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin. DST has been used in the United States and many European countries since World War 1. To day about 70 countries practise DST around the world.

Energy management is a kind of motivation of the consumers in short term and changing the design of the existing equipment including electric wiring design of residential buildings, commercial complex and industrial installations as a long term planning.

When the consumers will see that the changes bring financial benefit, they will adopt it. Every electricity consumer will welcome a system which will give him some relief from frequent load shedding, low voltage and power fluctuation which damage their equipment. We neither in the past gave, nor at present are giving any emphasis on energy management through which a poor country like Bangladesh could derive much more benefit in terms of optimising investment in power sector development, improve quality of power supply and ensure access to electricity by more people.

As a part of the energy management, Day Light Saving Time is a system through which the electricity consumers will be benefited. On the other hand, no investment is needed for its implementation. We have a long summer period in a year, starting from March to October. We have and will have in future years with greater intensity load shedding and low quality of power supply during entire summer period, as we don't foresee any dramatic change in addition of generation capacity due to our financial constraints and dependency on foreign assistance for the development of high capital intensive power sector. Our electricity consumers are badly affected during the entire summer period. Students suffer due to load shedding in carrying out their studies, besides production at industries also suffer and eventually the economic growth of the country. On the other hand, we have evening shopping culture in our society and thus a sharp rise in demand for power in the evening. It is not possible to come out of this situation easily. So, we will have to take some measures through which society can be benefited.

The Day Light Saving Time is a measure to be undertaken by the government. It is just to advance your clock time by one hour at the beginning of the summer in the month of March and pull back by one hour at the end of the summer in the month of October.

What happens in this case is that in summer, we get sunlight from 5 in the morning. During this period when the clock will be forwarded by one hour, the time in the clock will show 6. When the people will attend office following the new time at 9 AM, the actual time will be 8 AM. Similarly, when the office will end at 4PM in the new time shifting, the actual time will be 3 PM during the period from March to October. People will get enough time to go for shopping after reaching home. At shopping centers, when the clock will show 8 in the evening, the actual time will be 7 and at 9 in the evening when the actual time will be 8, people will have a tendency to go back home for safety and security reasons.

On the other hand, shopping centers will not face any constraint to carryout their business activities. In this situation the power system will face difficulty only for one hour of the real time, from 7 PM to 8 PM. Students will face less difficulty of shedding as the major shopping centers will be closed early due to time shifting, when the actual time will be 8 PM. And at the end of October, the clock will be turned back and continue with the original time till the end of February. Eventually a healthy society can be expected to grow if we really feel that we will have to survive in a most competitive world of this century.

Studies done in the 1970 by the US Department of Transportation show that USA trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent each day with Day Light Saving Time. Day Light Saving time has been around for most of this century and even earlier. British Summer Time was introduced by an Act of Parliament in 1916. Clocks were put one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) during summer months. Seventy countries around the world use Day Light Saving Time method.

Even the oil rich Iran takes advantage of Day Light Saving Time. Unfortunately, Bangladesh never thought of this despite our necessity both economically and socially.

This Daylight Saving Time can contribute significantly in a persistent power generation shortage which is likely to continue for the next 3 to 4 years. Even if money is available today to build power plants, transmission and distribution system to utilise the generated power efficiently, some procedures have to be followed like inviting international tenders, evaluation of tenders, the bitter approval procedures, interference etc. These are well known and have become acceptable facts of our society. It is not very easy to say how and when we will be able to come out of this situation. But this can be predicted that we will have to travel a long way and carry out our development activities accepting this situation.

Energy saving is obviously beneficial in an energy scarce country like Bangladesh. Extra hours of daylight means less hours of burning light and that should be our objective. In our power system, we have a sharp evening peak and for which the majority electricity consumers who cannot afford to live in posh areas mostly suffer for the entire summer period. Daylight Saving Time benefits society by adding more daylight when people are active. It saves energy and more outdoor recreational time benefits public morale.

Daylight Saving Time (or summer time as it is called in many countries) is a way of getting more out of the summer days when we are badly in need of it. Daylight Saving Time prevents crime, because people get home from work and students from school in daylight. Daylight Saving Time reduce people's exposure to various crimes, which are more common in darkness than in light.

As no investment is required to get the benefit from DST, it is the responsibility of civil society, the professionals to come forward and discuss the issue. Its necessity for implementation is immensely beneficial in Bangladesh where energy is scarce. We will have to fix up the strategies, find out the avenues and approach the policy makers to think for its implementation. Day Light Saving Time is a small step but can bring greater welfare for the citizens.

Mir Raziuddin Haroon, a former director of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB, is a Senior Energy Specialist, Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP).