Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is an ancient city. There is a public saying that Nawab of Dhaka installed a small generator in his residence "Ahsan Monjil" and started generating power at 5pm on 7th of December 1901, which is considered as the introduction of electricity in the then Dhaka city. Later, in and arround 1930, M/S. DEVCO, a subsidiary of M/S. Octavians Steel Company, developped electricity distribution system at 400V level under complete private ownership and brought that for public use. Most probably in the year 1933 a power generating station named "Dhanmondi Power House" was established with two 1500 KW generators each and from there the electricity distribution system was started to sale to the public on commercial basis.

After partition of the Indian sub-continent in the year 1947, power generation, transmision and distribution authority in the then East Pakistan region were confined within some private companies. The electricity supply in the then 17 districts were limited to the township areas only for a limited time (i.e; for use during night time only) except Dhaka city area. At that time other than some private companies, power were used to be generated by some isolated industries like tea, sugar, textiles and railway workshops. In aggregate, the generation capacity of this region was about 21 MW at that time.

To cope up with the growing power demand of this region, the then Govt. of Pakistan created Electricity Directorate in 1948 to plan and improve power supply. In 1957 the Govt. took over the private owned companies in Dhaka and placed them under the Electricity Directorate for power generation and distribution.

In 1959, East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA) was established to look after generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity throughout the province of the then East Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1972, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) was created to look after the same function. Dhaka Electric Supply, headed by a Chief Engineer under BPDB used to control the electricity distribution and sales in Greater Dhaka District area up to September 1991.

To improve services to the consumers and to enhance revenue collection by reducing the prevailing high system loss, Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) was created by an ordinance promulgated by the President of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh in 1990.

The President of the Govt. of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh ordered for establishment of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) by promulgation of ordinance No. 6 of 1990 on 6th March. (published in the Bangladesh Gazette, Additional issue on 14th March, 1990).

Act No. 36 of 1990 for establishment of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) was issued (published in Bangladesh Gazette, Additional issue, 23rd June 1990) in superceding the ordinance no. 6 of 1990.

Creation of DPDC

Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC), is a Public Limited Company under Power Division of Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources of Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC), was registered on 25 October, 2005 under the Companies Act, 1994. The company was entitled to perform buiseness from the date of incorporation. The DPDC took over DESA on 1st July 2008 and so started commercial operation on the date taken all Assets and Liabilites of DESA through Transfer agreement dated 11 September 2008.

The Company was created as a part of the Power Sector Reform Program. It was created to provide electricity to customers of Dhaka City Corporation area (excluding DESCO area) including Narayangonj town, Siddirgonj, Demra, Fatullah and Moktarpur under Narayangonj district.

Principal Activities

The main objective of the company is to distribute electricity to its customers effectively and efficiently. The main activities are as follows:

1. Selling and distribution of electricity in the area of DPDC.
2. Maintenance and expansion of electricity distribution system.
3. Undertaking development work related to electricity distribution.
4. Carry out any work supplementary to the major objectives.

Other Power Sector Utilities