Anisul Islam Noor :
The government’s dependency raises on costly power generation as 14 gas-fired power plants have remained shut for long due to short supply of gas.
A less-expensive lone coal-fired power plant at Barapukuria and hydropower plant at Kaptai are also running far below their capacity due to lack of proper maintenance and renovation, said a source of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
According to experts, electricity price hike in several times in the recent years will fall the small industries in big challenge and costly of livelihood will increase alarmingly.
At present BPDB porches electricity from the oil-based power plants while many low-cost gas-fired power plants have remained shut, which is pushing to raise electricity price, they said.
BPDB has been paying higher price to purchase electricity from oil-run power plant as the closure of so many gas-run power plants at a time is rare, a senior of Power Division said.
Electricity generation from the hydropower plant currently amounts to around 90 megawatts against the capacity of 230 MWs and from the coal-fired power plant 80MWs against its generation capacity of 250MWs.
Officials concerned see no signs of coming up shortly the large base-load coal-fired power plants that were contracted much before.
Government subsidy allocation in power sector is set to shoot up further if the trend continues.
According to the BPDB, its fuel costs against the country’s overall electricity generation of around 7,800 megawatts were worth Tk 36.5 crore as of February 18.
Of the total fuel costs, Tk 29.2 crore, or 80 per cent, accounts for oil. Several large gas-fired power plants located at Ghorashal, Haripur, Meghnaghat and Siddhirganj have been shut or nominally operated for long.
Gas-based power plants of Bibiyana, Ashuganj, Kumargaon and Baghabari were added onto the closure list, according to BPDB statistics.
At present BPDB purchases electricity from the large gas-fired power plants within the range of Tk 2.0-3.5 per unit, while it purchases electricity from the oil-fired plants at rates ranging between Tk 13 and Tk 23 per unit.
Professor M Tamim, Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), has told The New Nation that the country should have a priority list to utilise natural gas.
“The old, gas-guzzling fertiliser factories should be shut permanently,” he said.
“The government should also focus on building new less-expensive base-load power plants to reduce electricity- generation costs,” said the engineering professor in the discipline.
Professor Shamsul Alam, energy adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) said the ever-increasing dependence on oil-fired power plants, most of which were built following unsolicited deals, since mid-2010 is raising the electricity-supply costs substantially.
The government has already raised electricity tariffs several times to pass on the rising electricity-generation costs to the clients, any further step to raise power price will be beyond of logic, he said.
The government’s dependency raises on costly power generation as 14 gas-fired power plants have remained shut for long due to short supply of gas.
A less-expensive lone coal-fired power plant at Barapukuria and hydropower plant at Kaptai are also running far below their capacity due to lack of proper maintenance and renovation, said a source of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
According to experts, electricity price hike in several times in the recent years will fall the small industries in big challenge and costly of livelihood will increase alarmingly.
At present BPDB porches electricity from the oil-based power plants while many low-cost gas-fired power plants have remained shut, which is pushing to raise electricity price, they said.
BPDB has been paying higher price to purchase electricity from oil-run power plant as the closure of so many gas-run power plants at a time is rare, a senior of Power Division said.
Electricity generation from the hydropower plant currently amounts to around 90 megawatts against the capacity of 230 MWs and from the coal-fired power plant 80MWs against its generation capacity of 250MWs.
Officials concerned see no signs of coming up shortly the large base-load coal-fired power plants that were contracted much before.
Government subsidy allocation in power sector is set to shoot up further if the trend continues.
According to the BPDB, its fuel costs against the country’s overall electricity generation of around 7,800 megawatts were worth Tk 36.5 crore as of February 18.
Of the total fuel costs, Tk 29.2 crore, or 80 per cent, accounts for oil. Several large gas-fired power plants located at Ghorashal, Haripur, Meghnaghat and Siddhirganj have been shut or nominally operated for long.
Gas-based power plants of Bibiyana, Ashuganj, Kumargaon and Baghabari were added onto the closure list, according to BPDB statistics.
At present BPDB purchases electricity from the large gas-fired power plants within the range of Tk 2.0-3.5 per unit, while it purchases electricity from the oil-fired plants at rates ranging between Tk 13 and Tk 23 per unit.
Professor M Tamim, Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), has told The New Nation that the country should have a priority list to utilise natural gas.
“The old, gas-guzzling fertiliser factories should be shut permanently,” he said.
“The government should also focus on building new less-expensive base-load power plants to reduce electricity- generation costs,” said the engineering professor in the discipline.
Professor Shamsul Alam, energy adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) said the ever-increasing dependence on oil-fired power plants, most of which were built following unsolicited deals, since mid-2010 is raising the electricity-supply costs substantially.
The government has already raised electricity tariffs several times to pass on the rising electricity-generation costs to the clients, any further step to raise power price will be beyond of logic, he said.
