Power sector: Planning and implementation
Quasem Haider | Monday, 4 April 2011
Quasem Haider
What started with Mr. Michel Faraday, a book-binder in London who turned out to be a scientist with his infatuation with the magnetic field, the alternative current has, by now, become an important barometer for development. Today we can not even think of a day without alternative energy resources for generating electric power, though in the initial years, it was taken to be very dangerous for the mankind. With the passage of time, the use of alternative energy has become indispensable; and most development activities are directly linked with this. Of late, the deficit in our power sector has hit a record high as we have miserably failed to generate electricity, keeping pace with the growing demand. As it had promised earlier through its election manifesto, the government has come up with short-, intermediate- and long-term planning to generate power; it has fixed a target to generate an additional amount of 7000 megawatt (mw) of electricity by the end of 2013, 8000 mw, by 2015; 20,000 mw, by 2021. At present 49 per cent of our population are covered under the electrification facilities while the rest is totally deprived of this essential element of modern-day life. Our per capita power consumption is only 236 kilowatt. This is very meagre compared to the situation in the rest of the world. Each year our demand is increasing by 10 per cent. Pitifully enough, the production has fallen short of the need for keeping pace with the demand. As a result, we are facing load shedding. At present, load shedding is keenly felt across the country, right from the cities to villages - almost everywhere. The government has envisaged an eight per cent growth rate of gross the country's domestic product (GDP) by 2013. It has further envisaged another ambitious planning named, "Power for all by 2021". It has furthermore presented a new planning for digitalisation of Bangladesh by 2021 We can here have a view of the present scenario in the power sector There are many units in operation. One fourth of them are over-aged and were commissioned 20 years back. As a result, the overall performance of such units is very poor and they are hardly reliable. So, the cost of maintenance and forced outage are very high. We are losing 800 megawatts of power production due to gas deficit. Alternate source of energy: Except for Kaptai Hydro Electric Project, all major power plants in Bangladesh are based on gas. The government is looking for alternative sources of energy as there is a huge deficit in gas production. Previously, our prime user of natural gas was power production units and 89 per cent of power was produced from gas alone. In the first two months of this fiscal year, it has dropped by two per cent. The government is seriously contemplating to reduce dependence on gas. A number of measures have been taken to generate power by importing diesel, furnace oil and CNG and using renewable resources. The government has taken steps to set up new power plants, based on coal. Hence, we need to fix our coal policy as soon as possible. Plan up to 2016: After assuming power in 2009 until now, the present government has put 1403 mw electricity into national grid and the existing power production has now reached to 6106 mw. It has taken steps to generate 15000 mw to add to the existing national grid. It is known to all that it takes many years to set up a power plant. It takes 24 months to set up a 100mw power plant. So, we have to wait for a long time to see 500 mw power plants to operate. That is a reason why the present government has decided to set up rental and quick rental power plants. The table below indicates the situation about planning of power production unto 2016: A number of steps will have to be taken to help address the problems in our power sector. The plan is interesting to look at, as it envisages that there would be no more power deficit in the year, 2016. The present government has so far added an additional 1400MW power to the national grid. Having said that, it must be noted that we are not still free from load shedding. Nothing significant has so far been achieved about providing new electric connections. Surprisingly enough, the government is compelling the subscribers to set up solar panels to provide up to 3.00 per cent of their power demand, for new electric connection. The subscribers do not have the resources to do so. Many of such subscribers have constructed their buildings without having any prior plan to set up solar panels. So, such buildings are not technically equipped to set up solar panels. Why is the government then forcing them to do that? Some say that there is something fishy. Many critics believe that the government is doing so to help some people become rich. Some businessmen, for their coterie interests, have persuaded the government to enforce this. But this office order has no sound rationale and should, therefore, be withdrawn. Transparency should be brought into power sector to stop corruption as it is widely perceived. Because of corruption, the situation in this sector remains largely chaotic. For an uninterrupted development of this sector, corruption must be checked. All procurement operations in power sector should be transparent and tender procedures should be of international standard and be so widely acclaimed. We should not allow any official to go unpunished if any allegation of corruption comes against him. Such corrupt officials should be brought to justice. Happily we have a huge reserve of unused coal. We can better utilise this source of energy by using coal-fired power plants. If we want to become a middle-income country, we must generate 15000mw of electricity by 2016. Besides setting up coal-fired power plants, we need to focus on setting up of power plants based on furnace oil and diesel. Provisions must be made to import furnace oil and diesel to help run such power plants smoothly. For reasons that remain unknown to many people, we have not able to materialise over the years the plan for setting an atomic power plant in Rooppur that was conceived even before the independence of Bangladesh. The government has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Russia to set up an atomic power plant. We need to focus on this type of power plants. Another MoU has also happily been signed by the present government with China, too. At present, the poor countries like Brazil are also trying to explore the potential of atomic power plants. In terms of macro-economic management, we are in a better position than many other developing country do this. But it is pitiful that while being concerned with setting up of new plants, we are neglecting the maintenance of old power plants. For any machinery, maintenance is very important. It is useless to generate new plants without overhauling the old ones as it will create new problems in this sector. As for an example, if we generate 500 mw of electricity afresh with old power plants remaining closed down, we will be facing the possibility of witnessing 5000MW deficit. It is no good sign for us. As most of our old power plants are over-aged, they require extensive balancing, modernisation, replacement and expansion (BMRE) operations. Such old power plants can be made efficient by modernising with some few millions of takas. But, the top brass of Power Development Board (PDB) is reportedly unwilling to go for proper BMRE operations of old power plants because such works will not serve their vested interests. The writer is the founder chairman of Eastern University and former vice president of the Federation of the Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI). He can be reached at e-mail: md.amirulhossain@gmail.com
What started with Mr. Michel Faraday, a book-binder in London who turned out to be a scientist with his infatuation with the magnetic field, the alternative current has, by now, become an important barometer for development. Today we can not even think of a day without alternative energy resources for generating electric power, though in the initial years, it was taken to be very dangerous for the mankind. With the passage of time, the use of alternative energy has become indispensable; and most development activities are directly linked with this. Of late, the deficit in our power sector has hit a record high as we have miserably failed to generate electricity, keeping pace with the growing demand. As it had promised earlier through its election manifesto, the government has come up with short-, intermediate- and long-term planning to generate power; it has fixed a target to generate an additional amount of 7000 megawatt (mw) of electricity by the end of 2013, 8000 mw, by 2015; 20,000 mw, by 2021. At present 49 per cent of our population are covered under the electrification facilities while the rest is totally deprived of this essential element of modern-day life. Our per capita power consumption is only 236 kilowatt. This is very meagre compared to the situation in the rest of the world. Each year our demand is increasing by 10 per cent. Pitifully enough, the production has fallen short of the need for keeping pace with the demand. As a result, we are facing load shedding. At present, load shedding is keenly felt across the country, right from the cities to villages - almost everywhere. The government has envisaged an eight per cent growth rate of gross the country's domestic product (GDP) by 2013. It has further envisaged another ambitious planning named, "Power for all by 2021". It has furthermore presented a new planning for digitalisation of Bangladesh by 2021 We can here have a view of the present scenario in the power sector There are many units in operation. One fourth of them are over-aged and were commissioned 20 years back. As a result, the overall performance of such units is very poor and they are hardly reliable. So, the cost of maintenance and forced outage are very high. We are losing 800 megawatts of power production due to gas deficit. Alternate source of energy: Except for Kaptai Hydro Electric Project, all major power plants in Bangladesh are based on gas. The government is looking for alternative sources of energy as there is a huge deficit in gas production. Previously, our prime user of natural gas was power production units and 89 per cent of power was produced from gas alone. In the first two months of this fiscal year, it has dropped by two per cent. The government is seriously contemplating to reduce dependence on gas. A number of measures have been taken to generate power by importing diesel, furnace oil and CNG and using renewable resources. The government has taken steps to set up new power plants, based on coal. Hence, we need to fix our coal policy as soon as possible. Plan up to 2016: After assuming power in 2009 until now, the present government has put 1403 mw electricity into national grid and the existing power production has now reached to 6106 mw. It has taken steps to generate 15000 mw to add to the existing national grid. It is known to all that it takes many years to set up a power plant. It takes 24 months to set up a 100mw power plant. So, we have to wait for a long time to see 500 mw power plants to operate. That is a reason why the present government has decided to set up rental and quick rental power plants. The table below indicates the situation about planning of power production unto 2016: A number of steps will have to be taken to help address the problems in our power sector. The plan is interesting to look at, as it envisages that there would be no more power deficit in the year, 2016. The present government has so far added an additional 1400MW power to the national grid. Having said that, it must be noted that we are not still free from load shedding. Nothing significant has so far been achieved about providing new electric connections. Surprisingly enough, the government is compelling the subscribers to set up solar panels to provide up to 3.00 per cent of their power demand, for new electric connection. The subscribers do not have the resources to do so. Many of such subscribers have constructed their buildings without having any prior plan to set up solar panels. So, such buildings are not technically equipped to set up solar panels. Why is the government then forcing them to do that? Some say that there is something fishy. Many critics believe that the government is doing so to help some people become rich. Some businessmen, for their coterie interests, have persuaded the government to enforce this. But this office order has no sound rationale and should, therefore, be withdrawn. Transparency should be brought into power sector to stop corruption as it is widely perceived. Because of corruption, the situation in this sector remains largely chaotic. For an uninterrupted development of this sector, corruption must be checked. All procurement operations in power sector should be transparent and tender procedures should be of international standard and be so widely acclaimed. We should not allow any official to go unpunished if any allegation of corruption comes against him. Such corrupt officials should be brought to justice. Happily we have a huge reserve of unused coal. We can better utilise this source of energy by using coal-fired power plants. If we want to become a middle-income country, we must generate 15000mw of electricity by 2016. Besides setting up coal-fired power plants, we need to focus on setting up of power plants based on furnace oil and diesel. Provisions must be made to import furnace oil and diesel to help run such power plants smoothly. For reasons that remain unknown to many people, we have not able to materialise over the years the plan for setting an atomic power plant in Rooppur that was conceived even before the independence of Bangladesh. The government has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Russia to set up an atomic power plant. We need to focus on this type of power plants. Another MoU has also happily been signed by the present government with China, too. At present, the poor countries like Brazil are also trying to explore the potential of atomic power plants. In terms of macro-economic management, we are in a better position than many other developing country do this. But it is pitiful that while being concerned with setting up of new plants, we are neglecting the maintenance of old power plants. For any machinery, maintenance is very important. It is useless to generate new plants without overhauling the old ones as it will create new problems in this sector. As for an example, if we generate 500 mw of electricity afresh with old power plants remaining closed down, we will be facing the possibility of witnessing 5000MW deficit. It is no good sign for us. As most of our old power plants are over-aged, they require extensive balancing, modernisation, replacement and expansion (BMRE) operations. Such old power plants can be made efficient by modernising with some few millions of takas. But, the top brass of Power Development Board (PDB) is reportedly unwilling to go for proper BMRE operations of old power plants because such works will not serve their vested interests. The writer is the founder chairman of Eastern University and former vice president of the Federation of the Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI). He can be reached at e-mail: md.amirulhossain@gmail.com