ZCZC
BSS-11
ELECTRICITY-GENERATION
11,104-MW electricity added to national grid in 9 years
By Syed Shukur Ali Shuvo
DHAKA, Jan 02, 2018 (BSS) – A total of 11,104 megawatts (MW) of power have
been added to the national grid in the last nine years, facilitiating 83 percent
of the country’s total population access to electricity, according to
official sources.
“The electricity generation capacity reached 16,046 MW and now 83 percent
people are getting power facility across the country. In the recent years,
Bangladesh has experienced booming economic growth, rapid urbanization and
industrialization as electricity supply has been increased,” State Minister
for Power, energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told BSS today.
He said the government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina constructed additional 85 power plants, 1, 60,000 km
distribution lines, 2,622 circuit km transmission lines in the last nine
years aimed at turning Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021 and
developed and prosperous country by 2041.
“The government has undertaken 13 mega projects in cooperation with India,
Japan, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore to set up coal-based power
plants and construction of 5,925 MW capacity power plant under the public and
private partnership (PPP) is underway. We expect the first mega project of
Pyra having 1300 MW capacity will come into operation in April 2019,” Nasrul
added.
He said pre-paid metering system has been introduced nationwide aimed at
making bill payment system easier with collecting hundred percent electric
bill, adding some seven lakh pre-paid meters have already been installed and
another twenty seven lakh meters are expected to be installed by next June in
2018.
The state minister said the power division has been brought under
digitalization to enhance its efficiency, transparency, accountability and
increase the quality of customer service.
“We have decided to develop underground electricity distribution system to
make it time-befitting especially in major cities,” he, however, said.
About fuel diversification, the state minister said the government has
been diversifying the fuel mix for power generation as natural gas is
depleting day by day, adding “Government has a plan to gradually use coal,
LNG and other available fuel for power generation with the natural gas. To
ensure energy security, the government has formulated Power sector master
plan (PSMP)-2016 for overall development of the sector.”
He said the government has a plan to further import 3,500 MW of power
through regional cooperation by 2021 and 660-MW electricity is currently
being imported from India.
Nasrul added that so far, 45 million Solar Home System (SHS), 10 solar
mini grids have been installed in off-grid rural areas and the government has
a plan to install 60 million SHS and 50 Solar Mini-grid System by 2018 to
cover about 10 percent of total population.
Talking to BSS, Director General (DG) of Power Cell Engineer Mohammad
Hossain said the system loss of the power sector has been brought down to
12.19 percent from 16.85 percent and per capita power generation reached 433
kWh and the total subscribers reached 2.74 crore in the country.
“The government has decided to implement electricity transmission projects
under PPP for the first time, which was taken up in 1997 during the first
term of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina’s government,” he said.
Hossain said the government established Sustainable and Renewable Energy
Development Authority (SREDA) to promote renewable energy, enhance energy
efficiency and mitigate risks of natural calamities caused by global warming
in Bangladesh.
According to official data, the AL-led government assumed office in 2009,
when the nation was suffering from chronic power crisis. The average power
demand at that time was about 6,000 MW while power generation capacity of the
country was 4,942 MW. It said eight to ten hours load-shedding in summer was
causing unbearable miseries to people and now the generation capacity has
increased more than 16,000 MW.
BSS/SPL/SAS/GMR/1524 hrs