Bangladesh’s power and energy sector has now moved into the second generation of problems where challenges have shifted from concerns of electricity production to pricing and energy mix issues.
The sector is now facing growing challenges of inefficiency, cost escalation, lack of cleaner energy-mix, poor quality of transmission and distribution and rising financial burden.
So experts underscored the need for smart coordination between the demand and supply sides of the power sector to provide low-cost power and energy in the country.
While raising concerns over generation surplus in the power sector, they called on focusing more on transmission and distribution of electricity in the future.
Improvement of transmission and distribution of electricity should be a major focus of the power sector during the 8th Five Year Plan period, they said.
The focus should also be given on strengthening the capacity of implementing renewable energy projects, and both traditional and non-traditional renewable
energy projects should get priority in the upcoming policy document, they said.
Experts also highlighted the need for institutional reform in the power sector for developing a sustainable power and energy sector in the country.
The suggestions came up at the virtual expert group discussion “Reflections of the Power Sector in the Upcoming 8th Five Year Plan: Perspectives on Strategies and Initiatives” organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
At the discussion, CPD Research Director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem suggested that an alignment of the demand projection should be made, by the upcoming power system master plan (PSMP) 2021, with other policy documents.
The energy mix which is highly biased towards fossil-fuel should be gradually rebalanced with setting up renewable energy-based projects, Moazzem said.
