At least four lakh easy bikes across the country consume up to 400MW of power for charging them, according to a primary report prepared by Power Cell, the government’s planning wing for the power sector. ‘The owners of the easy bikes charge the batteries either from domestic power connections or illegal connections resulting in an unexpected pressure on the national grid,’ Power Cell director general Mohammad Hossain told New Age.
He said that the power distribution companies were not getting the revenue for the electricity drawn from illegal power lines.
Besides, he said that the easy bikes should be charged from commercial lines.
Now, an easy bike needs between eight and 10 units or kilowatt-hour of electricity a day for which an owner of the bike spends between Tk 30 and 40 a day. The cost would be double if the owner charges the battery of the bike from commercial line instead of domestic line, according to the findings of Power Cell.
The government has decided to rehabilitate the charging of batteries of the easy bikes from solar powered charging stations.
The decision came from a power ministry meeting chaired by the prime minister’s energy adviser Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury held on Wednesday, officials said.
But charging of batteries of the easy bikes from a solar powered station would double the costing, according to a Power Cell assessment.
The meeting suggested that the government should bear 50 per cent investment for setting up such charging stations so that the owners of the stations could charge the batteries at 50 per cent less cost, the officials said.
The meeting also decided to set up seven such model charging stations.
A technical committee headed by the power cell director general Mohammad Hossain will conduct a feasibility study in this regard.
-With New Age input
