Captive producers offer to sell 200mw surplus power to state distributors

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Jasim Uddin Haroon
Manufacturing companies that produce power in their plants have come up with a proposal to supply 200-megawatt excess electricity to national grid but found the state-owned distribution firms reluctant to heed their call.
As the power crisis worsened, the companies --- including some top steel and commodity players-- took their proposals to the state bureaucrats but their offer was overlooked, although the extra amount was enough to ease the crisis in the capital.
"We made an offer to sell 12-mw power to PDB last month. But so far there is no reply," said Md. Jahangir Alam, managing director of GPH Steel.
"Our offer was cheaper than independent power producers. But unfortunately there is none to look at what we were offering. I know at least seven other companies who made similar offer but received no reply," he said.
Rural Electrification Board (REB), another state owned power distribution company, is purchasing an 31mw electricity from these companies, but it is only a fraction of offer made by the captive power producers.
The offer comes as the power shortfall balloons around 2000mw during the peak time, with the government saying that it can't improve the situation in the next three years.
An acute crisis of gas means the government can't even fire at least half a dozen power plants to produce extra electricity.
Alam said they could supply the power at any time of the day and were ready to even install transmission line to help the PDB carry the power to the national grid.
"Our intension is purely to help the country. We won't charge any extra money for the transmission cost," said Alam.
Golam Mustafa, chairman of Deshbandhu Sugar Mills at Narsingdhi said he had been trying hard to sell surplus power to the REB for some time.
Top companies such as Meghna Group, Abdul Monem Limited, Rahim Steel, AA Power Generation and Unique Group have also made similar offers over the last couple of months.
"When we meet the power officials to sell our surplus power, their (power officials) attitudes reflect that there is no power crisis in the country," Mustafa said.
"The companies which produce their own power are capable of supplying at least 300 megawatt power to the national grid by December next. It will lessen the crisis to a great extent."
Chairman of the PDB SM Alamgir Kabir said a difference in timing has compelled the state-owned distributor to look for other source to alleviate the power crisis.
"It's true that we need power urgently, but captive power producers don't want to supply it during our required time," he said.
He said purchase of power from private companies required a number of government approvals and is a cumbersome process, leading to delay in negotiations with the captive producers.
"We are now studying terms and conditions prepared by the REB to procure power from the captive power producers," he said, without giving any specific timeframe.
Mostafa said a lack of uniform tariff structure is also standing on the way to sell of captive power to state distributor.
At present PDB is buying power from independent power producers at Tk 2.48 per kilowatt and Tk 3.0 from rental power plants. REB buys its power from captive producers at Tk 2.21 per kw.
N Zaman, a coordinator of Bangladesh Energy Producers Association that groups 12 private power plants, said the companies don't want to haggle with price and spend extra time to sell their electricity.
"Most of these companies are engaged in other businesses. They don't have the time and energy to spend hours at the corridors of the PDB and REB to convince the unwilling bureaucrats."
"We are now planning to meet with the prime minister to convey the message that we are willing to help at this time of national crisis," Zaman said.