Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) has recently completed cent per cent electrification of 461 upazilas in 61 districts across the country.
With the latest development, the BREB, the largest electricity distributor in the country, now has a beneficiary base of over 106.89 million people.
Established in 1978, the BREB now distributes power to 462 upazilas - 461 on-grids and one off-grid upazila - to connect over 30 million consumers in around 82,305 villages.
Currently, the organisation is working to bring 1,059 off-grid villages of Rangabali Upazila of Patuakhali under the national grid within the Mujib Year, BREB officials said.
In line with the government's 'Power to All' initiative, the BREB is determined to complete its upazila-wise 100 per cent electrification programme within the Mujib Year, said BREB chairman Major General Moin Uddin (Retd).
Considering the geographical reality of Bangladesh, 100 per cent electrification in a short time is a challenging task, he said, adding: "But due to the direction and strong leadership of the Prime Minister, this impossible mission has become a reality now."
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already inaugurated the programme in 288 upazilas and will soon inaugurate the remaining 173 upazilas.
A programme titled 'Ghore Ghore Bidyut' was taken to expand the rural electrification and the BREB will provide electricity in the remaining off-grid areas by December this year.
There are 240,000 consumers in the off-grid Rangabali upazila, in which BREB will provide electricity coverage in three phases.
Submarine cables were used to connect 1,030 villages with the main grid while the rest 29 remote villages will get electricity with solar mini-grid by the end of this year.
"This 100 per cent electrification programme is an embodiment of BREB's effort to cooperate the government in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within 2030," the BREB Chairman told the FE.
The programme will help the country achieving Goal-07 of the SDGs which says "affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all".
According to the latest annual report of BREB, the board maintains the enormous electricity supply activities through its 80 Palli Biddut Samities (PBSs) which is divided into 277 zonal offices across the country.
The distribution line under the BREB stood at 530,000 km as of June 2020, of which 313,000 km was installed during the last 11 years of the current government.
At this moment, BREB has the capacity to distribute 13,500 MVA power to its consumers.
The monthly sales of BREB reached over Tk 20 billion, of which 96.22 per cent is collected as bills.
In last 11 years of the incumbent government, the percentage of the electricity privileged people has been increased from 28 per cent to 99 per cent, Mr. Moin added.
Talking about the system loss of BREB, he said that in last one decade, the system loss has been gradually reduced to less than 10 per cent from 18 per cent in 2008.
Alongside residential connections, the 80 PBSs of BREB have provided connection to 360,000 irrigation pumps, 180,000 small industries, 15,000 medium industries, 375 large industries, and eight export processing zones (EPZs).
Shedding light on the BREB's work plan for next five years, its chairman said the organisation has been serving majority of the country's people and now its core aim is to provide quality and uninterrupted power supply.
Besides, it will modernise, upgrade and expand distribution lines to 94,000 km, establish 415 substations, install 30 sets of river crossing towers, replace 150,000 overloaded distribution transformers, put 8,500 km overhead distribution lines underground, bring 10 million consumers under smart pre-payment meter, and construct 20 MW (peak) renewable energy power station.
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