Anisul Islam Noor :
The government plans to add around 3000 megawatt (MW) electricity to the national grid on an emergency basis to meet any sudden crisis and ensure adequate power supply in rural and urban areas in the country.
Power Development Board is now conducting a feasibility study to find suitable areas for setting up some power plants, a PDB director told The New Nation on Sunday.
A technical team consisted of local and foreign experts, is working to complete the study in a short time as per directives from high-ups of the government, he said.
These power plants are likely to be rental which will be furnace oil or diesel and LNG
fired, as prices of these fuels are now reasonable at international level.
Generally, a load-based plant requires 3 to 5 years to set up and start power generation, while furnace oil-fired power plants need 10 months to generate power, according to PDB sources.
In the wake of the recent collapse of power supply tower at Habiganj that led to power outage countrywide, the planned power plants will be able to provide electricity in certain areas using the local grid, the government high-ups think.
The government has a plan to install 42 more power plants having 11,124 MW capacity as sustainable development of power generation, transmission and distribution system is a priority.
Finance Minister A M A Muhith said this in his budget speech for 2017-18 in the Jatiya Sangsad on June 1. “In addition, 33 power plants having 11,214 MW capacity are now under construction as part of the power sector master plan,” he said. Placing the country’s biggest-ever budget on Thursday, he proposed Tk 21,118 crore for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for the 2017-18 fiscal year. “Country’s 80 percent population is now under electricity coverage and the rest 20 percent will enjoy this facility ahead of 2021,” Muhith said.
Referring to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s initiative, ‘electricity in every house,’ he said the government is implementing the power sector master plan, while the people are already enjoying the fruits of these endeavours.
“We will continue our efforts to install coal-based power plants in Rampal, Matarbari and Payra while encouraging installation of power plants in the private sector,” the Minister added.
Furthermore, the government has taken initiatives to install four power plants in Moheshkhali with financial supports of Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore.
In order to sustain the current level of power generation capacity, BMRE of the existing gas based power plants will be continued as well. Side by side, the government will carry on implementing its plan for importing power from Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and the North-Eastern part of India under sub-regional cooperation.
The Minister said that dependence on rental power plants will be gradually reduced from 2018 onwards when a comfortable power supply situation can be ensured.
Besides, the government has already taken steps to generate power from nuclear sources to meet the increasing demand of electricity and to this end it has taken up a project to build a nuclear power plant at Ruppur having a capacity to generate 2,400MW electricity.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that the government is putting efforts relentlessly to ensure adequate power supply across the country.
“With dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we will be able to supply electricity to every house by 2021,” he said.
