Experts favour 'integrated regional energy supply plan'
Friday, 25 December 2009
FE Report
Energy experts Thursday urged the government to undertake an "integrated regional energy supply programme" and reflect it in the upcoming vision paper as the country's electricity demand would swell to 20,000-megawatt per day in 2021.
The experts from the public and the private sector also suggested completion of a "wind mapping" in order to track the wind-force available for running up wind mills to generate power.
Presided over by member of the General Economics Division (GED) Shamsul Alam, local energy experts took part in the consultation meeting in the city in an effort to finalise the draft "Perspective Plan 2021" by February next year.
The GED under the Planning Commission has drafted the vision paper, first of its kind, that would guide the nation to cutting the extreme poverty to 10 per cent from the current 40 per cent and achieve double-digit economic growth by 2021, final year of its implementation period.
Prof Alam told the FE that since the country's energy demand would go up significantly, the experts' suggestions would be injected in the upcoming perspective plan.
"Regional integration is very imperative for energy sharing within this region. Nepal and Bhutan have enough hydro-electricity potentiality which energy-hungry Bangladesh can utilise for generating electricity easily," he said quoting an energy expert in the discussion.
The GED shared the draft perspective plan with the experts who attended the meet and took their expert opinion on the long-term vision paper to be finalised by February 2010.
In the perspective plan, it was targetted to supply 450-kilowatt/hour (kwh) electricity per capita by 2021 against the present 182kwh, generating 20,000mw electricity through gas, coal, solar and nuclear energy, wind and other renewable sources.
The draft vision paper has a target of 36 per cent contribution from the industrial sector to the country's total gross domestic product (GDP), 52 per cent from the service sector and 12 per cent from the agriculture sector compared to current 20.24 per cent, 56.83 per cent and 22.93 per cent respectively.
The GED in another meeting Thursday also held discussion with agriculture experts, where the draft vision paper targetted to produce 3.34 billion to 376 billion tonnes of rice by 2021 against the demand for 3.26 billion tonnes.
Planning Minister AK Khandokar urged the experts and stakeholders to facilitate boosting of rice production through utilising modern technology and research based works.
"If we can eliminate the knowledge gap, some 4.0 million to 4.5 million tonnes of more rice will be added every year," he said quoting a research that revealed that production in the research firm was 40 per cent higher than the output in farmer-cultivated firms.
Prof. Shamsul Alam said the major election pledges of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League have been reflected in their draft perspective plan, to be implemented during FY2011-FY2021.
The government has formed an expert committee, headed by Planning Minister AK Khandokar, comprising some economists, population experts, planners and development experts who are working to finalise the long-term development guideline.
Energy experts Thursday urged the government to undertake an "integrated regional energy supply programme" and reflect it in the upcoming vision paper as the country's electricity demand would swell to 20,000-megawatt per day in 2021.
The experts from the public and the private sector also suggested completion of a "wind mapping" in order to track the wind-force available for running up wind mills to generate power.
Presided over by member of the General Economics Division (GED) Shamsul Alam, local energy experts took part in the consultation meeting in the city in an effort to finalise the draft "Perspective Plan 2021" by February next year.
The GED under the Planning Commission has drafted the vision paper, first of its kind, that would guide the nation to cutting the extreme poverty to 10 per cent from the current 40 per cent and achieve double-digit economic growth by 2021, final year of its implementation period.
Prof Alam told the FE that since the country's energy demand would go up significantly, the experts' suggestions would be injected in the upcoming perspective plan.
"Regional integration is very imperative for energy sharing within this region. Nepal and Bhutan have enough hydro-electricity potentiality which energy-hungry Bangladesh can utilise for generating electricity easily," he said quoting an energy expert in the discussion.
The GED shared the draft perspective plan with the experts who attended the meet and took their expert opinion on the long-term vision paper to be finalised by February 2010.
In the perspective plan, it was targetted to supply 450-kilowatt/hour (kwh) electricity per capita by 2021 against the present 182kwh, generating 20,000mw electricity through gas, coal, solar and nuclear energy, wind and other renewable sources.
The draft vision paper has a target of 36 per cent contribution from the industrial sector to the country's total gross domestic product (GDP), 52 per cent from the service sector and 12 per cent from the agriculture sector compared to current 20.24 per cent, 56.83 per cent and 22.93 per cent respectively.
The GED in another meeting Thursday also held discussion with agriculture experts, where the draft vision paper targetted to produce 3.34 billion to 376 billion tonnes of rice by 2021 against the demand for 3.26 billion tonnes.
Planning Minister AK Khandokar urged the experts and stakeholders to facilitate boosting of rice production through utilising modern technology and research based works.
"If we can eliminate the knowledge gap, some 4.0 million to 4.5 million tonnes of more rice will be added every year," he said quoting a research that revealed that production in the research firm was 40 per cent higher than the output in farmer-cultivated firms.
Prof. Shamsul Alam said the major election pledges of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League have been reflected in their draft perspective plan, to be implemented during FY2011-FY2021.
The government has formed an expert committee, headed by Planning Minister AK Khandokar, comprising some economists, population experts, planners and development experts who are working to finalise the long-term development guideline.