Anisul Islam Noor :
The country’s electricity generating now stands at over 10,000 megawatt per day while it distributes 6,200 MW only. The government could not distribute the surplus electricity in due to lack of distribution and transmission capacity infrastructures, experts said.
Although electricity distribution lines have been set up in two to three years in 31 districts, people are yet to get electricity connections. They have to wait more one and a half year for power as the sub-stations and other technical support for distribution of electricity to consumer levels have not been improved.
Professor Nurul Islam of BUET said at present Power Development Board (PDB) is generating 4800 MW to 6200 Mw on an average while the total generation has crossed over 10,000 MW in December last.
Currently, the country has about 34 oil-fired rental and quick rental power plants, having a total capacity for electricity generation up to 2,433 MW.The 23 power plants, having a total capacity of 1,956 mw, are furnace-oil-fired and another11, having the generation capacity for 537 mw, are diesel-based.
The experts said the government’s ‘faulty’ policy on the power sector is escalating the woes of electricity subscribers as it could not bring any large scale power plant into operation.
Non-implementation of any large power plant has led to a bulging subsidy bill in the country’s power sector that is being paid to the private power producers, they said.
The ‘laxity’ in implementing low-cost but big base-load power plant projects that have led to the heavy dependence on high-cost rental and quick rental power plants is mainly responsible for this situation, they alleged.
Electricity subscribers are bearing the major brunt of it as they are paying an increased amount of electricity bills, they said.
‘Influential’ business people, having links with government high-ups, set up most of the oil-fired rental and quick rental power plants bypassing the tender process, it is alleged.
Meanwhile, the government has awarded contracts for several large power plant projects, including the 341-mw Bibiyana-I plant, 341-mw Bibiyana-II plant, 335-mw Meghnagahat plant and three coal-fired power plants, having a total generation capacity at around 1100 mw. However, none of those power plants started generation till now.
Nasrul Hamid, state minister for power, told The New Nation yesterday that he was trying to bring a combination among the entire sector of power generation, distribution and transmission.
The action will be taken to bring a speed in work for electricity distribution after finding out the real barrier, he said.
