Industries are going to get uninterrupted electricity supply under a new arrangement as the government is contemplating discouraging operation of gas-guzzling captive power plants, official sources said.
The government plans to launch the fresh move to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to industries to discourage the setting up of new gas-fired captive power plants as part of measures to check energy inefficiencies, a top official said Friday.
Currently, around 3,000-3,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, or around half the country's overall electricity output, is being generated in captive power plants for consumption only in privately-owned industries.
Most of them are inefficient and cause misuse of natural gas in operation.
Some 17 per cent of country's overall natural gas production, or around 350 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas, is consumed by captive power plants, a study conducted by Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources revealed.
The electricity being generated in captive power plants does not come into the national grid.
Although the previous BNP-led government had tried to purchase electricity from captive power plants for supplying to the national grid, it did not work.
Power Secretary Monowar Islam said last week that a huge quantity of energy could be saved if the owners of captive power plants were supplied with uninterrupted electricity.
Officials said efficiencies of most of the captive power plants are much below the acceptable levels as they use old and inefficient generators and boilers for electricity generation.
Policymakers now feel that a sizeable volume of natural gas could be saved and diverted to other productive sectors for use if the industries were provided with uninterrupted electricity through reducing operations of captive power plants, officials said. Successive governments earlier had tried to convince the industry owners by creating awareness for efficient use of energy in captive power plants, but the effort went in vain as most of them are continuing operation with inefficient boilers and generators, it has been alleged.
Country's energy regulator in 2012 fixed an average power tariff at Tk 14.44 per unit (1 kilowatt hour) for the industrial consumers who want to get uninterrupted electric supply from the state-owned power entities.
Categorising the consumers who will get electricity under the new tariff rate as 'Q class', Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) set the tariff for 132kilovolt (kv) electricity at Tk 13.88 per unit, 33kv Tk 14.45 and 11kv at Tk 14.99 per unit.
But, to its utter frustration, not a single industry owner has come up to take the expensive uninterrupted electricity supply under the Q category.
An industry owner, requesting anonymity, said the tariff rate under the category is very high, which discouraged the industrialists from chasing for uninterrupted power connection.
They had little interest in uninterrupted electricity supply as they would have to build electricity-transmission lines, set up substations and develop necessary infrastructure to get the power as per the BERC instructions.
"The initiative to supply uninterrupted electricity to industries is good," said Professor M Tamim of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
But he hastened to add that the tariff under Q category should be rationalised to make the move a success.
Separately, the government is also working to enact a new law to legally compel the consumers to use energy-efficient machines and devices for energy saving, Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said last week.
Under the proposed law, the consumers would be offered a fixed timeline for voluntary replacement of their inefficient machines and appliances.
If they fail, action would be taken against them under the proposed new law.
