THE state-owned power plants can’t generate electricity to a minimum of their stated capacity as they lack improved technology, besides management failure to achieve the highest output as per a report in The New Nation on Sunday. The report quoting Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) said its power plants can generate electricity half of their capacity mainly for use of old version of machinery. On the other hand, it said plan for low cost coal power plants instead of costly diesel and furnace oil would not be successful for management crisis.
As a result, experts believe dependency on costly diesel and furnace oil will only increase. Updated evaluation of power sector mega projects as prepared by Power Cell in the Ministry of Power and Energy said that only three public sector coal-fired power plants may go into operation in 2021.
Officials of the Power Division said it will not be possible for private sector power projects to maintain schedules for going into operation as these private groups are facing difficulties in mobilising necessary funds for the projects.
The public sector plants are 1320 MW Rampal Coal-fired Power Plant, 1200 MW Matarbari Power Plant and 1300 MW Payra Power Plant. Of the three projects, Rampal and Payra plants are being implemented under joint venture while state-run Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCBL) is implementing the Matarbari Project funded by Japanese donor agency JICA, said sources at the Power Division.
Professor Shamsul Alam, Energy Adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) stated as per the report an elite group has taken over the Power Sector hindering implement of cheaper power plant projects. Their aim is to make more money easily by selling electricity at higher price to the government. Professor Alam said, the Power Sector master plan is totally wrong and the Power Division also does not know how it would be implemented.
Diseconomies of management are the real reason why economies of scale can’t be achieved for most large power producing units. But there is no reason why this can’t be corrected in the Power Sector as it relies heavily on technical economies to achieve high level of efficiencies. Possible reasons like financial bottlenecks and management inefficiencies can be corrected easily to reduce costs of power production.
Ultimately the benefits of low cost power plants will be passed on to the consumers and producers will be able to sell at lower rates. Just after independence we paid at a rate of Tk 0.29 per kilowatt hour — if the consumption increase we will pay Tk 0.23 per kwhr. It is unimaginable to think that now we are paying at rates above TK 5.14 for any use above 100 units — which is what most consumers use. Surely this over twenty-fold power price increase in just 43 years is something unusual, which can be reduced many times with use of more efficient technology and management. We must say it will increase power generation in one hand and reduce cost of power on the other. The government should improve control over power generation and distribution to bring relief to nation.
