Anisul Islam Noor :
Power consumption in the Industrial Sector goes downward although generation capacity has increased three times in seven years.
However, household consumption of electricity is on the rise because of high demand.
The industrial power use has reduced by 3 percent, while its domestic use rises 6 percent.
According to data from Power Development Board (PDB), power generation capacity was 5,166 MW in the 2008-9 fiscal year. It increased to 15379MWtill April of the current fiscal.
In 2008-09, 46 percent power was used in the residential sector, 37 percent in industrial and 10 percent in the commercial sector. Power consumption in 2015-16 decreased in the industrial sector. About 51 percent of the electricity produced in that fiscal year was provided to the residential sector. And the amount of electricity supplied to the industrial sector was about 34 percent and 9 percent in the commercial sector.
The cost of power generation increased significantly during this period. In 2008-09, every unit cost Tk 2.55 but it increased to about Tk 7 per unit.
In this context, PDB Chief Engineer (Planning and Development) Vikash Dewan told The New Nation that in the last few years demand for electricity had increased due to the general consumers’ demand compared to the industrial sector.
PDB officials pointed out that there is no growth in electricity demand by captive connections to the industry, while the demand has increased in the households due to the improvement in the standard of living.
Energy experts, however, blamed the government’s wrong policy for not increasing the supply of electricity to the industrial sector.
Energy Adviser to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Shamsul Alam said due to the wrong policies of the government, industry owners are heading towards captive power.
The government has given more connections to ordinary customers to meet its electoral promise of reaching out the electricity to all houses.
Sector people say power consumption has not increased in the industries since 2000.
In the fiscal year 2006-07, the power production capacity stood at 3,718 MW, 42 percent of which was for the industrial sector. Electricity generation capacity of FY2007-08 crossed 4000 megawatts. Of this, 39 percent was provided for the industrial sector.
After taking power of the Grand Alliance Government, power generation capacity increased rapidly since FY 2009-10. Alongside, subsidies are also increasing. But the electricity supply to the industrial sector also declined at a faster rate.
Syed Nasim Manjur, former president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI), said the industrial sector needs uninterrupted power.
