PM’s principal secretary questions public power plants’ efficiency
He has urged the Bangladesh Power Development Board to improve the plants’ efficiency
Principal Secretary to the prime minister Dr Ahmad Kaikaus has questioned the efficiency of public power plants that have higher generation costs than captive ones.
He has also urged the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to improve power plants' efficiency.
At a virtual dialogue on electricity demand, organised by the Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh (FERB) in association with the Bangladesh Independent Power Producers' Association on Saturday, he said the cost of per unit captive power is Tk4.5 while per unit grid power for industries costs around Tk8.
At present, 43% of gas supply goes to gas-based grid power plants while 16% is supplied to captive ones.
Dr Kaikaus said, "We have to think about this high cost and also how to make power plants more efficient. Also, why should we supply gas to inefficient plants?"
He also said hiking power prices is a must because there is no instance in the world of reducing this.
"As we are already supplying electricity to 99.5% of the population through the existing power plants, we do not need to expand the gas network. Only ensuring energy supply will do."
Professor M Tamim, dean of the engineering faculty at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, presented the keynote.
He echoed Dr Kaikaus, saying raising electricity prices is inevitable, but a realistic tariff prediction is needed to help the industrial sector with their planning.
Analysing three power sector master plans, he said predictions of the 2005 and 2016 plans were close to actual demand while the 2010 plan was very ambitious.
The power sector master plan 2010 predicted that electricity demand would be 17,304MW in 2020 while the 2016 plan's prediction was 12,949MW.
Professor Tamim said Bangladesh has to keep some excess capacity in the system due to variations in the use of power in different seasons.
"There was an enormous gap of 5,500MW between the highest and the lowest demand in 2020. Bangladesh has no other option but to keep this excess capacity standby during winter," he said.
Talking about energy mix, he said natural gas, both LNG and local, would be the transition fuel for the next 20 years for power and non-power sectors.
Therefore, land-based LNG facilities must be developed rapidly along with further exploration, he added.
BPDB Chairman Engr Md Belayet Hossain said the power board should phase out the costly power plants to reduce the amount of subsidies.
"We can keep the costly power plants only to be used as peaking plants during emergencies," he said.
He also said the power board has to maintain overcapacity due to fuel transportation limitations.
Md Habibur Rahman, secretary to the Power Division, spoke as the special guest at the event while FERB Chairman Arun Karmaker chaired it.
Mohammad Hossain, director general of Power Cell; Maj Gen (Retd) Moin Uddin, chairman of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board; and Golam Kibria, managing director of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh; spoke at the event among others.