The World Bank has approved a $500 million fund to help Bangladesh expand and modernise its reliable electricity distribution network and support sustainable transformation of the electricity system. The fund will help improve electricity services for about 40 million people in Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions. The credit is from the WB’s International Development Association (IDA), which provides concessional financing with a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. The fund will be utilised to upgrade and construct more than 31,000 km of distribution lines, 157 distribution substations, and related infrastructure, and incorporate measures to increase climate resilience of network infrastructure in 25 rural electric cooperatives (Palli Bidyut Samities) in the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. Network investment will be paired with new and advanced technologies to help modernising and transforming the electricity system.
Quoting World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh Dandan Chen, a media release said in the last decade, the country achieved a more than fourfold increase in electricity generation capacity and delivered electricity connections to more than 99 per cent of its population. However, the electricity distribution network could not keep pace with the increase in electricity generation. The WB programme will introduce a modern grid system that can support the two-way flow of electricity and information, minimising and recovering quickly from climate and cyber risks, including natural disasters and extreme weather events. It will introduce state-of-art technologies such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System and install Advanced Metering Infrastructure.
It is also planned to support the decarbonisation of the power sector by facilitating the integration of renewable energy and Battery Energy Storage Systems in the electricity distribution network. All these are expected to lead to a sustainable transformation of the electricity system. To sustain Bangladesh’s economic growth, the WB observed, the country needed to address certain power-related barriers — including low access to reliable and affordable power, limited availability of serviced land, rapid urbanisation and vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters. We see that the Bangladesh power sector is in a transformative phase. Let us work towards building, sustaining and promoting a corruption free power sector. Let us also minimise per unit costs of products and maximise per unit quality and quantity of products for the sake of the people of the country.
But our fear is corruption will be shared and money will be misused. We know the World Bank is doing business and it must supervise the right use of the loan. Otherwise our people will not be liable to repay. Corruption is so widespread that we have no reason to trust anybody.
