Aminul Islam
The average electricity generation during evening peak hours has decreased by around 200MW in the last one month resulting in increase in power outages because of ‘slack monitoring’ by the Power Division after the Awami League-led alliance formed the government, sources in the division said.
Although the present government announced it would give the highest priority to supplying electricity for irrigation for the ongoing peak Boro cultivation season, the electricity generation has in fact dropped, said a division source.
The average generation of electricity during evening hours, which was around 3650MW in December, 3695MW in November and 3770MW in October, had come down to only 3490MW in January after the present government took office on January 6, said sources. The Power Development Board generated 3400MW electricity during evening peak hours on Monday and 3389MW on Sunday.
The official average load shedding, which was 280MW in October, 328MW in November and 119MW in December, increased to around 480MW in January because of drop in generation and increase in demand of electricity for irrigation, sources said.
Sources in the division said that the Power Development Board had claimed that the drop in generation was resulted from lack of gas supply to the power plants.
The PDB usually blames gas supply shortage whenever there is a drop in electricity generation although the board is getting the same amount of gas supply as it got in December, said another source.
The PDB got around 550-600 million cubic feet of gas per day during December against the demand of over 700mmcfd of gas and it got similar amounts of gas during January.
During the last government, the division took a measure to strongly monitor the activities of all power plant units, the source said, adding that the then power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan especially monitored the generation of all power units and always used to exert pressure on the PDB to bring any power unit into operation as soon as possible once it tripped.
It said a committee, headed by a deputy secretary, was also formed to monitor the maintenance works of the power units and the electricity generation was kept around 3700-3800MW by strong monitoring and timely maintenance in most part of 2008 after the BNP-Jamaat government’s utter failure to increase generation.
But at present the activities at the division have slowed down although the AL in its election pledges identified power sector as one of its priority sectors, it said, adding that no special steps have yet been taken to ensure electricity supply to the irrigation areas.
Sources in the PDB and the division said that the country was bracing for severe outages with the rise in demand of electricity within a month once the weather became warm.
If the generation continues at the present rate, there will be massive load shedding, said a PDB source, adding that although the government is banking on the under-construction power plants, which were initiated during the caretaker government, for meeting electricity demand, no one can confirm when these plants will come into operation.
The division has also stopped updating its website daily following the drop in electricity generation.
Sources in the division said although 168MW of electricity was supposed to come into operation in January from three small independent power plants at Ullapara, Habiganj and Feni, two long-term rental power plants at Shahjibazar and Kumargaon and a short-term rental power plant at Bhola, only the 80MW came from Shahjibazar plant.
Similarly 131MW power from three more SIPPs and two short term rental power plants is supposed to be added to the national grid but no one knows if these plants will come into operation in time,’ said a source. The interim government selected some inexperienced power companies for installing the costly rental plants.
Power secretary, Nasiruddin Ahmed could not be reached for comments on the latest power situation despite several attempts.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
