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The government has resumed electricity generation from diesel-fired power plants to improve the power supply situation from next month.
“We have already started generating electricity from diesel-fired plants. It will help boost power generation significantly,” State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid said.
He informed the power producers have started opening LCs to import diesel for generating electricity from the suspended power plants. “Dollar price has also declined, which will make it less expensive to import the fuels for electricity generation.”
He assured that load-shedding will ease significantly over the next few months.
The Rampal power plant may resume electricity production at the end of next month, the state minister also said.
According to Petrobangla, the natural gas supply may drop to 2790mmcfd in September against the average supply of 2865mmcfd.
The long-term LNG import may drop to 490mmcfd in September from 565mmcfd now, a Petrobangla forecast said.
An official on the condition of anonymity said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on July 18 instructed the Power Division to suspend electricity generation from 10 costly diesel-fired plants as a part of government austerity measures to cut power generation cost.
The diesel-fired plants have a combined electricity generation capacity of around 950MW. The PMO has also asked to cut fuel import by 20 percent as per of the government’s austerity measures.
According to Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCB), they have received at least 5500MW from oil-fired plants and 5300MW from gas-based plants. The rest of the electricity comes from coal, solar and hydroelectricity-based plants.
PGCB managing director Golam Kibria also said electricity supply to grid has increased significantly after resuming the electricity production from diesel-fired plants. He said the generation from gas-fired plants is now remarkably well.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) projected the demand for electricity at 14,500MW. But the generation came down to 13,500MW on average.
It pushed the government to introduce load-shedding—three to four hours in the capital and up to 10-12 hours in villages.
Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) chairman Mohammad Selim Uddin said load-shedding has eased gradually at REB areas over the last few days after resuming production at oil-fired plants.
(DS)
