Govt, entrepreneurs meet today to thrash out power crisis solution
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
M Azizur Rahman
The power ministry interacts with the country's prospective private sector entrepreneurs today (Wednesday) to seek their support in installing new power plants to end the chronic electricity crunch, officials said Tuesday.
About 40-50 leading private sector entrepreneurs are expected to take part in the first-ever meeting of the government to find out scopes of their involvement in setting up power plants, a senior power ministry official said.
He said all the private sector entrepreneurs, who are invited to the meeting, have previously shown their interests in getting involved in their capacities with the government in installing power plants.
The meeting is being held following unveiling of the government's latest plan of massive investment, worth Tk 410 billion, during the next five years to 2014 to streamline the power sector and ease the nagging load-shedding.
Most of the electricity, required to put an end to the country's power shortfall, would be produced at plants to be built by private companies selected by the government through competitive bidding, the plan spells out.
In the initial move to achieve the target and augment electricity generation, the power division has primarily selected about 20 locations across the country for installation of high-cost rental and peaking power plants having the combined generation capacity of 1300 megawatts (mw).
The power ministry has set a target to install rental power plants, which will produce 500 mw by June next while peaking power plants will be set up to produce 80 mw in two years.
The rental power plants would be installed by the private sector on the build-own-operate (BOO) basis in six months and the Power Development Board (PDB) would purchase the high-cost electricity for three years.
The PDB will install the public-sector peaking plants in two years and operate those for 15 to 20 years.
The rental power plants are planned to be installed in Khulna South, Noapara in Jessore, Madanganj in Netrakona and Bheramara and Karakhali in Rajshahi the capacities between 50MW and 120MW.
"The meeting is expected to focus on government incentives to the private sector for setting up the power plants, probably tariff rates, locations and timetable to initiate electricity generation from the plants," said PDB Chairman A.S.M. Alamgir Kabir.
He said installation of the rental power plants might be on top of the agenda.
The country has long been experiencing severe power outages under pressure from its burgeoning economy, which has been growing at an annual rate of around six percent over the last five years.
The power shortfall is especially acute in the hot summer months of April to October.
Years of under-investment mean that the state-owned power plants have generated only around 3.500 megawatts of electricity a day against the peak hour demand for over 5,500 megawatts and the demand is growing by 500 megawatts a year due to rapid industrialisation.
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank say the acute power shortfall has been a big drag on the country's bid to attain double-digit growth.
Only 40 percent of Bangladesh's 144 million people have access to power and the power crisis forces some factories to halt production for at least three hours at peak time.
Augmenting electricity generation and easing load-shedding are, however, among the key issues the incumbent government attaches priority to.
The government has pledged to increase electricity generation to 5,000 mw by 2011 and to 7,000 mw by 2013.
The power ministry interacts with the country's prospective private sector entrepreneurs today (Wednesday) to seek their support in installing new power plants to end the chronic electricity crunch, officials said Tuesday.
About 40-50 leading private sector entrepreneurs are expected to take part in the first-ever meeting of the government to find out scopes of their involvement in setting up power plants, a senior power ministry official said.
He said all the private sector entrepreneurs, who are invited to the meeting, have previously shown their interests in getting involved in their capacities with the government in installing power plants.
The meeting is being held following unveiling of the government's latest plan of massive investment, worth Tk 410 billion, during the next five years to 2014 to streamline the power sector and ease the nagging load-shedding.
Most of the electricity, required to put an end to the country's power shortfall, would be produced at plants to be built by private companies selected by the government through competitive bidding, the plan spells out.
In the initial move to achieve the target and augment electricity generation, the power division has primarily selected about 20 locations across the country for installation of high-cost rental and peaking power plants having the combined generation capacity of 1300 megawatts (mw).
The power ministry has set a target to install rental power plants, which will produce 500 mw by June next while peaking power plants will be set up to produce 80 mw in two years.
The rental power plants would be installed by the private sector on the build-own-operate (BOO) basis in six months and the Power Development Board (PDB) would purchase the high-cost electricity for three years.
The PDB will install the public-sector peaking plants in two years and operate those for 15 to 20 years.
The rental power plants are planned to be installed in Khulna South, Noapara in Jessore, Madanganj in Netrakona and Bheramara and Karakhali in Rajshahi the capacities between 50MW and 120MW.
"The meeting is expected to focus on government incentives to the private sector for setting up the power plants, probably tariff rates, locations and timetable to initiate electricity generation from the plants," said PDB Chairman A.S.M. Alamgir Kabir.
He said installation of the rental power plants might be on top of the agenda.
The country has long been experiencing severe power outages under pressure from its burgeoning economy, which has been growing at an annual rate of around six percent over the last five years.
The power shortfall is especially acute in the hot summer months of April to October.
Years of under-investment mean that the state-owned power plants have generated only around 3.500 megawatts of electricity a day against the peak hour demand for over 5,500 megawatts and the demand is growing by 500 megawatts a year due to rapid industrialisation.
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank say the acute power shortfall has been a big drag on the country's bid to attain double-digit growth.
Only 40 percent of Bangladesh's 144 million people have access to power and the power crisis forces some factories to halt production for at least three hours at peak time.
Augmenting electricity generation and easing load-shedding are, however, among the key issues the incumbent government attaches priority to.
The government has pledged to increase electricity generation to 5,000 mw by 2011 and to 7,000 mw by 2013.