Wanted a whitepaper on power and gas situation
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Monday, 18 August 2008
The scarcity of both gas and power has emerged as the single most important hurdle to the country's economic development. And it seems that the government is groping in darkness to find a solution to the problem.
The mismatch between demand for, and supply of, power now ranges between 1000 megawatt and 1500 megawatt (MW) per day. The power situation has been like this for nearly a decade. Industries, commercial establishments and residents, though unwillingly, have learnt to live with frequent load shedding.
Industries have installed their own generators, mostly gas-fired, to continue their operations during power load-shedding. Most commercial establishments, shopping malls and tall apartment buildings do also have their own generators, fuelled by expensive diesel. A good number of individual middle class families have installed instant power supply-IPS-machines at their homes. And others who do not have the means to buy generators or IPS are left with no option other than bearing with frequent power load-shedding.
The power problem has become so chronic that the people and the media have almost stopped talking about it. Both print and electronic media, which have highlighted the problem extensively, are not that interested to project the power issue as extensively as before. It is hard to blame the media for its lack of interest in the issue since the governments, political or otherwise, have failed to take any effective initiative to generate additional power in recent years despite frequent projection of the problem by the media.
The immediate past political government could not implement any power plant during its tenure except for one at Tongi having a meagre 80 MW power generation capacity. That government encountered a variety of problems, including non-availability of adequate funds to start implementation of large power plants in the public sector. But corruption in high places and indecision were far more serious problems for that government compared to other relevant issues.
However, there was no dearth of funds in the private sector to implement power plants. But the BNP-led alliance government could not exploit that potential because almost everyone in the party became interested in setting up his or her own power plant.
In a way the BNP government had done the nation a favour by not setting up new power plants! The money spent on such power plants would have been a mere wastage. The plants would have remained inoperative for non-availability of gas. Already, a number of power plants both in the private and the public sectors are being supplied with gas far less than their requirement.
The incumbent caretaker government was highly critical of the last BNP government for its failure to implement new power plant because of the latter's indulgence in extensive corruption. But the present administration itself could not add even one MW of power to the national grid during past 19 months.
Actually, the gas shortage has emerged as a serious problem for power generation as well as for the industrialisation process. If the government decides to maintain uninterrupted and adequate supply of gas to the existing power plants, the industries have to be kept gas-starved and the opposite happens if industries are fed with their required volume of gas. What the energy ministry is doing now is that it is keeping both the power plants and industries half-fed or half-starved.
The issue of gas has become far more important than that of power. For power generation is very much dependent on gas supply. Experts are of the opinion that the proven reserve of gas would be exhausted by another six to seven years.
One has enough reasons to get frightened if one tries to visualise the possible developments in a no-gas scenario. Life would come nearly to a halt in the absence of gas unless and until an alternative is found.
But there is no reason to be that pessimistic. Experts concerned are still hopeful that the country would not be in such a desperate situation, at least, in five to ten years. A good number of prospective offshore and onshore blocks of the country have yet remained unexplored. Though belatedly, the third-round bidding for the offshore blocks has been invited.
The special adviser in charge of the energy ministry the other day blamed the past governments for being indecisive on gas exploration activities and the international oil companies for adopting a 'go-slow' policy.
Actually, both the government and the IOCs failed to visualise the rapid expansion in domestic gas demand. That was why the IOCs got entangled in gas export issue. The IOCs had refrained themselves from taking up exploration activities on the consideration of inadequate gas marketing prospects. Before embarking on exploration activities, through diplomatic channels, the IOCs raised the issue of gas export to India, which instantly became a hotly debated national issue. When the preachers of gas exports retreated, there came a number of foreign investors, including the Indian business conglomerate, Tata Group, with multi-billion dollar gas-based investment proposals. Waiting for long four years, the Tata Group seeing no prospect of getting gas for its fertiliser, power and steel plants has recently announced the withdrawal of its investment proposals.
The ongoing domestic as well as international energy scenarios should be enough to encourage the IOCs to go whole hog for gas exploration in Bangladesh where the success rate has been 3:1, a very satisfactory one according to global standard.
Hydrocarbon exploration activity is a time-consuming affair. One cannot expect overnight results. However, the government should not waste any more time and award contracts expeditiously to the IOCs to be selected through the recently held third round bidding.
Meanwhile, the energy ministry should come out with a whitepaper detailing the prevailing situation as well as future plans in gas and power sectors. Many investors are already in deep trouble by making investments in industrial units without knowing the gas supply situation. A whitepaper might help stop others from facing the same problem in future.
[email protected]
The mismatch between demand for, and supply of, power now ranges between 1000 megawatt and 1500 megawatt (MW) per day. The power situation has been like this for nearly a decade. Industries, commercial establishments and residents, though unwillingly, have learnt to live with frequent load shedding.
Industries have installed their own generators, mostly gas-fired, to continue their operations during power load-shedding. Most commercial establishments, shopping malls and tall apartment buildings do also have their own generators, fuelled by expensive diesel. A good number of individual middle class families have installed instant power supply-IPS-machines at their homes. And others who do not have the means to buy generators or IPS are left with no option other than bearing with frequent power load-shedding.
The power problem has become so chronic that the people and the media have almost stopped talking about it. Both print and electronic media, which have highlighted the problem extensively, are not that interested to project the power issue as extensively as before. It is hard to blame the media for its lack of interest in the issue since the governments, political or otherwise, have failed to take any effective initiative to generate additional power in recent years despite frequent projection of the problem by the media.
The immediate past political government could not implement any power plant during its tenure except for one at Tongi having a meagre 80 MW power generation capacity. That government encountered a variety of problems, including non-availability of adequate funds to start implementation of large power plants in the public sector. But corruption in high places and indecision were far more serious problems for that government compared to other relevant issues.
However, there was no dearth of funds in the private sector to implement power plants. But the BNP-led alliance government could not exploit that potential because almost everyone in the party became interested in setting up his or her own power plant.
In a way the BNP government had done the nation a favour by not setting up new power plants! The money spent on such power plants would have been a mere wastage. The plants would have remained inoperative for non-availability of gas. Already, a number of power plants both in the private and the public sectors are being supplied with gas far less than their requirement.
The incumbent caretaker government was highly critical of the last BNP government for its failure to implement new power plant because of the latter's indulgence in extensive corruption. But the present administration itself could not add even one MW of power to the national grid during past 19 months.
Actually, the gas shortage has emerged as a serious problem for power generation as well as for the industrialisation process. If the government decides to maintain uninterrupted and adequate supply of gas to the existing power plants, the industries have to be kept gas-starved and the opposite happens if industries are fed with their required volume of gas. What the energy ministry is doing now is that it is keeping both the power plants and industries half-fed or half-starved.
The issue of gas has become far more important than that of power. For power generation is very much dependent on gas supply. Experts are of the opinion that the proven reserve of gas would be exhausted by another six to seven years.
One has enough reasons to get frightened if one tries to visualise the possible developments in a no-gas scenario. Life would come nearly to a halt in the absence of gas unless and until an alternative is found.
But there is no reason to be that pessimistic. Experts concerned are still hopeful that the country would not be in such a desperate situation, at least, in five to ten years. A good number of prospective offshore and onshore blocks of the country have yet remained unexplored. Though belatedly, the third-round bidding for the offshore blocks has been invited.
The special adviser in charge of the energy ministry the other day blamed the past governments for being indecisive on gas exploration activities and the international oil companies for adopting a 'go-slow' policy.
Actually, both the government and the IOCs failed to visualise the rapid expansion in domestic gas demand. That was why the IOCs got entangled in gas export issue. The IOCs had refrained themselves from taking up exploration activities on the consideration of inadequate gas marketing prospects. Before embarking on exploration activities, through diplomatic channels, the IOCs raised the issue of gas export to India, which instantly became a hotly debated national issue. When the preachers of gas exports retreated, there came a number of foreign investors, including the Indian business conglomerate, Tata Group, with multi-billion dollar gas-based investment proposals. Waiting for long four years, the Tata Group seeing no prospect of getting gas for its fertiliser, power and steel plants has recently announced the withdrawal of its investment proposals.
The ongoing domestic as well as international energy scenarios should be enough to encourage the IOCs to go whole hog for gas exploration in Bangladesh where the success rate has been 3:1, a very satisfactory one according to global standard.
Hydrocarbon exploration activity is a time-consuming affair. One cannot expect overnight results. However, the government should not waste any more time and award contracts expeditiously to the IOCs to be selected through the recently held third round bidding.
Meanwhile, the energy ministry should come out with a whitepaper detailing the prevailing situation as well as future plans in gas and power sectors. Many investors are already in deep trouble by making investments in industrial units without knowing the gas supply situation. A whitepaper might help stop others from facing the same problem in future.
[email protected]