The BBC is reporting that basically the entire country of Bangladesh is without power, a country of 150 million people.

The emergency seems related to the failure of a high voltage transmission line from the Indian electric grid, but it seems that the exact cause or reason why the blackout continues is unclear so I guess it will take some time to figure that out. In the meanwhile, Bangladesh's power plants appear unable to continue generating power.

One recurring disaster theme I've heard for a number of years now is a widespread grid down situation due to a number of different reasons (e.g. cyberattack, EMP, solar flare, lack of maintenance, etc). National Geographic's program American Blackout (which I didn't see) is probably the latest high profile reminder.

In Bangladesh's case, it does not sound like major permanent damage has been done to generating or transmission capability, so hopefully they're up and running again soon. I just saw a TV segment on the blackout and the longer it continues, the more authorities worry about the security situation in the capital.