Power sector's management
Friday, 14 September 2007
Mujibul Haque
THE present government is under a pressure, understandably, to increase the supply of power in any way it can . But it is also true that no government under the present situation in Bangladesh can work miracles through establishment of new power generation capacities within months only. Therefore, the fastest way to try and achieve improvements in power supply under the present conditions involves mainly attempting to restore full generation capacities.
It appears that the existing power plants in the country have a total generation capacity of over 5000 mw but the same cannot be realised in many cases due to ageing machinery, lack of replacement and repairs. It is possible perhaps to progressively restore fully or near to it the production capacities of the plants by carrying out their rehabilitation, repair and replacement works on a war footing. Previous governments could not do this for reasons of corruption. But the present government which has declared a crusade against corruption and appears to have the hard resolve to address squarely the major national problems, is expected to have the proper ability and motivation to accomplish this task of restoring or nearly restoring full generation capacities by working according to a short time-table. The rehabilitation, repair and overhauling works of the plants with determination will not suddenly increase generation capacities notably but the same should gradually go on increasing month after month the total supply. This would create a state of reasonable balance eventually between demand and supply at one stage, hopefully in the short term.
The government recently has declared a roadmap for building up generation capacity by 2010. But it should go all-out to improve supply in the short run. To that end, the most effective means would be buying up wholly and quickly the surplus power available with captive power producers (CPPs) or ones in the private sector who generate their own power. The other policy essentially has to be putting into operation at the fastest the generating plants that remain closed for repairs, overhauling and rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, every effort should be made to plan and implement better the load shedding operations. This is also possible after getting feedbacks from various types of users about their need, peak time of uses and preferences. A proper and carefully crafted load shedding schedule prepared for the entire country on the basis of such information, breaking it down into area-based schedules, can prevent the worse sufferings of consumers while also keeping life and living and the economy functioning reasonably or tolerably.
THE present government is under a pressure, understandably, to increase the supply of power in any way it can . But it is also true that no government under the present situation in Bangladesh can work miracles through establishment of new power generation capacities within months only. Therefore, the fastest way to try and achieve improvements in power supply under the present conditions involves mainly attempting to restore full generation capacities.
It appears that the existing power plants in the country have a total generation capacity of over 5000 mw but the same cannot be realised in many cases due to ageing machinery, lack of replacement and repairs. It is possible perhaps to progressively restore fully or near to it the production capacities of the plants by carrying out their rehabilitation, repair and replacement works on a war footing. Previous governments could not do this for reasons of corruption. But the present government which has declared a crusade against corruption and appears to have the hard resolve to address squarely the major national problems, is expected to have the proper ability and motivation to accomplish this task of restoring or nearly restoring full generation capacities by working according to a short time-table. The rehabilitation, repair and overhauling works of the plants with determination will not suddenly increase generation capacities notably but the same should gradually go on increasing month after month the total supply. This would create a state of reasonable balance eventually between demand and supply at one stage, hopefully in the short term.
The government recently has declared a roadmap for building up generation capacity by 2010. But it should go all-out to improve supply in the short run. To that end, the most effective means would be buying up wholly and quickly the surplus power available with captive power producers (CPPs) or ones in the private sector who generate their own power. The other policy essentially has to be putting into operation at the fastest the generating plants that remain closed for repairs, overhauling and rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, every effort should be made to plan and implement better the load shedding operations. This is also possible after getting feedbacks from various types of users about their need, peak time of uses and preferences. A proper and carefully crafted load shedding schedule prepared for the entire country on the basis of such information, breaking it down into area-based schedules, can prevent the worse sufferings of consumers while also keeping life and living and the economy functioning reasonably or tolerably.