Addressing energy situation in the short term
Friday, 6 March 2009
The Prime Minister (PM) who is also in charge of the ministry of energy, told parliament last Wednesday about the various plans of her government in the energy sector that include the establishment of nuclear power plants, hydel power plants, trans-border power supply from Nepal and Bhutan, etc. She also blasted away at the last elected government for its irrefutable poor handling of the power sector and stated that when she and her party were in power the last time, they left relatively much better conditions in the supply of energy.
The Prime Minister's observations are mainly what her government intends to do in the long run to boost power or energy supplies. But the suffering stakeholders who include businesses, industries and potential investors as well as household users of power, are more concerned with the present situation in the energy sector and the government's action plans to help improve it sooner than later. What the government of the day intends to do to augment energy supply in the mid and long terms comes next in order of priorities for them. They would like to know what had happened that led to load shedding even in the winter season and the load shedding increasing in frequency even before the full-fledged arrival of summer. The caretaker government did not leave a comfortable power supply situation. But an impression was given at the time of its giving up power that power supply in the present summer months could be at least no worse than in the previous summer or at least a little better. The caretakers had claimed themselves to have scheduled for the coming into operation of several small power plants that would mean a supply of about 800 mw to the national grid progressively by June. Have some of these plants started functioning and adding their output to the grid? The people do not yet know this.
So, the pertinent question is what could have happened only within a little over one month of the taking over of the new government when the power authorities in their interviews with the media are telling power users to be ready for load shedding every alternate hour during not only during the day hours but also in the night. In fact, such load shedding is experienced already by residents of Dhaka city in many parts. According to press reports, there is now a deficit of about 700 megawatt in power supply to the city. This deficit is likely to increase by another 300 megawatt by the full arrival of summer within the next two months, according to the reports.
Thus, what the helms people of the relevant ministry should be most interested in doing is not planning for the mid-term or the long terms, but concentrating all their expertise and abilities on gearing up efforts aimed at addressing the short term needs of power. They should examine closely the situation to know why the power supply situation is floundering so soon after the handing over of power by the caretaker government. Any deliberate slacks or mischief in discharging their duties by power sector employees must be taken care of immediately.
Meanwhile, the power ministry needs also to immediately start negotiating with captive power producers (PPS) to get their excess supplies sent to the grid. The PPPs are mainly large industries which have reportedly the capabilities to dispatch their additional power to the grid they generate with their own generators. Only faltering negotiations with them have been holding back the getting of some 1,000 mw of ready power from this source. However, the mid- or long-term action plans, as indicated by the Prime Minister, must not be relegated to the background. The concerned authorities do need to act upon them on a befitting priority basis because investments in energy sector are capital intensive in nature and involve usually a long gestation period.
The Prime Minister's observations are mainly what her government intends to do in the long run to boost power or energy supplies. But the suffering stakeholders who include businesses, industries and potential investors as well as household users of power, are more concerned with the present situation in the energy sector and the government's action plans to help improve it sooner than later. What the government of the day intends to do to augment energy supply in the mid and long terms comes next in order of priorities for them. They would like to know what had happened that led to load shedding even in the winter season and the load shedding increasing in frequency even before the full-fledged arrival of summer. The caretaker government did not leave a comfortable power supply situation. But an impression was given at the time of its giving up power that power supply in the present summer months could be at least no worse than in the previous summer or at least a little better. The caretakers had claimed themselves to have scheduled for the coming into operation of several small power plants that would mean a supply of about 800 mw to the national grid progressively by June. Have some of these plants started functioning and adding their output to the grid? The people do not yet know this.
So, the pertinent question is what could have happened only within a little over one month of the taking over of the new government when the power authorities in their interviews with the media are telling power users to be ready for load shedding every alternate hour during not only during the day hours but also in the night. In fact, such load shedding is experienced already by residents of Dhaka city in many parts. According to press reports, there is now a deficit of about 700 megawatt in power supply to the city. This deficit is likely to increase by another 300 megawatt by the full arrival of summer within the next two months, according to the reports.
Thus, what the helms people of the relevant ministry should be most interested in doing is not planning for the mid-term or the long terms, but concentrating all their expertise and abilities on gearing up efforts aimed at addressing the short term needs of power. They should examine closely the situation to know why the power supply situation is floundering so soon after the handing over of power by the caretaker government. Any deliberate slacks or mischief in discharging their duties by power sector employees must be taken care of immediately.
Meanwhile, the power ministry needs also to immediately start negotiating with captive power producers (PPS) to get their excess supplies sent to the grid. The PPPs are mainly large industries which have reportedly the capabilities to dispatch their additional power to the grid they generate with their own generators. Only faltering negotiations with them have been holding back the getting of some 1,000 mw of ready power from this source. However, the mid- or long-term action plans, as indicated by the Prime Minister, must not be relegated to the background. The concerned authorities do need to act upon them on a befitting priority basis because investments in energy sector are capital intensive in nature and involve usually a long gestation period.