Techno troubles prolong country's power crisis

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M Azizur Rahman
Technical glitches -- not the gas crisis -- at age-old electricity plants have emerged as the main obstacle to ramping up power generation in the country despite a sizeable growth in capacity in recent years, officials said Sunday.
The authorities have long blamed lack of gas for the acute electricity crisis in the country, but data released by the Power Development Board shows that the real criminal is technical problems in the fossilized plants -- not fuel.
In the past week, a spate of trippings alone led to daily production shortfall of nearly 800 megawatts power -- or one-fifth of the country's average daily output -- while gas crisis hindered output of only 264 mw.
"At present context, the main culprit is persistent technical problems, not the gas crunch," Power Development Board (PDB) chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir told the FE.
"Due to repeated problems, mishaps and maintenance, many of our power plants have been forced to shut down. The plants tripped too often as we could not maintain them properly or do overhauling in time because of continuous demand pressure," he said.
Kabir said the government last month shut down five fertiliser plants and diverted some 150 million cubic feet of extra gas to the power plants in a desperate effort to boost generation in some big units, which had remained idle due to lack of fuel supply.
But the diversion has hardly improved the scenario as daily power output continues to hover around 4,000 megwatt -- a supply gap of around 2,000 mw -- despite an increase of more than 700 mw capacity in the past two years.
"We could easily increase the power output by at least 20 percent this summer if the plants were glitches-free," Kabir said.
Until the fertiliser plants were shut down, gas supply crunch was the main villain behind the acute power crisis that has gripped the country since mid-March. At its worst, gas crunch affected daily generation of around 800 mw.
Although the diversion has increased output in the gas-fired plants, a spike in technical faults kept the overall production close to the last few months' average.
Former director general of Power Cell, BD Rahmatulklah, said many of the country's gas-fired plants are aged between 20 and 40 years and they regularly trip as they are forced to operate at their full capacity.
"Continuous electricity generation results in increasing number of breakings down in the power plants. Efficiency of plants and its machinery also go down when mercury rises," said Rahmatullah.
A regular maintenance keeps a plant idle for up to 20 days, while a breakdown stops generation for at least three months, he added.
"Production efficiency of a plant also depends on its age. A young plant can operate at its full capacity months without any disruption. But a old plant gives in to a slight demand pressure," he said.
Currently the country has five power plants aged over 40 years, 11 units 31-40 years, 23 units between 21-30 years, 19 units between 11-20 years and 69 units between 1-10 year(s) of age.
A power plant has a maximum lifespan of around 20 years.
The aged power plants consume more energy than the younger ones, said Rahmatullah, urging the government to devise a plan to replace them gradually.
Among the plants, the aged heavyweights, the 840mw capacity Ghorasal unit and 420mw Raozan unit, have been the worst affected by trippings.
In the past couple of weeks, Ghorasal plant has been generating 670mw and Raozan 270mw of electricity. Because of their age, they eat up billions of taka for maintenance and use more gas to produce fewer watts, he said.
PDB chairman Kabir admitted that fossilized plants have emerged as a big hurdle to the country's energy security.
"We are trying to rehabilitate the old power plants to enhance generation with lesser amount of fuel," he said.
The board would come up with specific action plan to revamp these plants, he added.