Power Crisis in Bangladesh Essay Example

production on priority basis. The nuclear option can also be explored. Renewable energy policy now allows the government to embark on large-scale projects with incentives that can play a good supplementary role in the long run.

4.This paper will analyze the sources of power generation with a view to find out the root causes of the crisis. An effort will also be made to discuss the impacts of power crisis and to suggest possible measures to overcome the situation on short and long term basis.

5.The aim of this paper is to analyze the current power crisis with a view to finding out possible measures to overcome the situation in a time-bound framework.

Power Generation

6. Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) has a total of 70 generating units. Their generation capacity varies from 2 Megawatt (MW) to 360 MW. Total installed capacity as of 25 April 2009 is 5167 MW including independent power plant (IPP).

7. Bangladesh has Gas fired unit (GFU), Liquid fuel Unit (LFU), Hydro Units (HU) and coal Fired Unit (CFU). Around 84% of electricity is produced from GFU. The percentage of production of LFU, CFU and HU are 6%, 6% and 3% respectively.

Power Sector

8Bangladesh is one of the lowest power consuming countries of the world. About 30% of the total population has an access to the electricity with per capita consumption of 117 kilowatts hours whereas for India it is 421 kwh and for Pakistan 384 kwh.

9Bangladesh at present generates 3700-3800 MW electricity (government sector 2292 MW and private sector 1245 MW) against the countries demand near 5500 MW. The

average consumption by industrial services, domestic services, commercial services and other sectors are 47.32%, 38.40%, 7.18% and 7.10%. The consumption is increasing at 10% per year but the generation of power is not increasing in that way.

10. It is assumed that a total of 1011 MW power would be added to the national grid at the end of December this year (public sector 330 MW and rest 681 MW from the private sector). It would make significant contribution in meeting demand of electricity in the future.

Causes of Power Crisis

11.Lack of National Power Policy.We really do not have a National Power Policy. There has not been any estimation of real demand and supply. An unprecedented delay in finalizing a coal policy is depriving us of using our coal reserve of 3.3 billion tones, which is around 5 times higher than our current proven gas reserve in terms of its heating value, which could have been used for power generation.

12.Lower Supply – Higher Demand.The demand for around 5,500MW of electricity is not met by an average supply of only 3,800MW. About 1500 MW of electricity is short per day.

13.Little Addition to Power Generation. Policy makers have failed over the last several decades to properly plan for power development. As a result, there was very little addition of generation capacity during last 15 Years.

14.Age Old Plants.Almost 30% of the existing plants have already crossed their service life of 20-25 years, but still in use and more 11% of the plants will terminate the life within next three years.

15.Inadequate Input Energy Resources.In Bangladesh, energy resources

are neither adequate nor varied. Natural gas, petroleum products, coal and hydropower are used to produce electricity, of which petroleum products are imported at high cost.

16.Insufficient Gas Supply.About 88% of power generation of our country is based on gas. The present power crisis is very much coupled with the gas crisis. At present, the country produces about 1700 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas per day against the demand for 1800 mcf. Ironically, today there is 600MW generation that cannot produce power due to lack of gas supply.

17.System Loss. Power distribution system operated by state owned companies is suffering from a chronic system loss of more than 30% of which 12% is genuine and rest 18% or more is from theft through meter tempering, illegal connection etc.

Impact of Power Crisis

18.Impact on Irrigation. With the forthcoming irrigation seasons the need for power will rise higher. Small farmers will be badly affected by lack of electricity in the rural areas.

19.Impact on Storage of Agricultural Goods.Most of the storage facilities for agricultural goods are located in rural areas. The lack of regular electricity has severely affected the quality of storage goods.

20.Impact on Industrial Sector. Foreign investors and local entrepreneurs do not come forward to install big plants of industries due to the unreliable and uninsured power generation of our country. A recent research reveals that the on-going electricity crisis is cutting down 10%-12% of industrial growth which leads to the cumulative bleeding of the fragile economy of Bangladesh.

21.Price Hike.Lack of power spply forces the industries and the farmers to switch over to fuel generators

for power outputs. It increases the production cost and which directly affects the market price of goods.

22.Domestic and Educational Hazards.Power outage disturbs the domestic life and hampers the education of the students. Hot summer nights and the night before the examinations people are without power.