Farmers across the country are unlikely to get enough electricity during the upcoming boro cultivation season even though the country’s power generation capacity recently crossed the 10,000-MW mark. The reason: the transmission network is dilapidated and the distribution system is overloaded. Sources in the Rural Electrification Board (REB) said the power distribution and transmission networks are in a poor shape, and have not been upgraded in the last five years. As a result, the authorities will not be able to provide new connections even though there is considerable demand for them.“It was a lopsided development plan. The Power Division did not match the plans for generation, transmission and distribution; so this problem was waiting to happen. City residents would also face the same problem during summer,” said Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) professor Dr Ijaz Hossain.
Owing to such a mismatch in the plans, the REB is facing serious problems in taking a decision about giving new connections to farmers for irrigating their paddy fields even though the irrigation season is close.
Some 35,000 applications from farmers have piled up at different offices of palli bidyut samitees (rural electricity committees) across the country. They are demanding temporary electricity connections during the upcoming irrigation season (since the cost of diesel is 10 times higher than electricity) for harvesting their boro paddy in the proper manner, REB sources said.
“We held a meeting recently wherein we identified that our main problem is the overloaded distribution system. It is not in a single area or one or two areas, we have found this phenomenon across the country. However, because of this technical problem, we won’t be able to allow new connections in our system even though the PDB is able to supply electricity as per our demand,” a senior REB official told The Independent.
The agriculture ministry said the demand for power in the irrigation season would be over 1,700 MW. However, the actual demand for electricity is between 7,800 MW and 8,000 MW during the period of irrigation.
According to the REB, it can provide new connections (for irrigation purposes) to the farmers, but cultivators are likely to suffer from massive power outages or low voltage, which could be dangerous for them. Such anomalies can burn their pumps. Also, farmers are unlikely to get electricity for seven to eight hours at a stretch, which is necessary for irrigation, an REB official pointed out.
Sources in the power and energy division said some 14 lakh irrigation pumps will function during the boro season, which is 2 lakh higher than in the previous year. Of these, around 3 lakh are run by electricity.
“The government has no plans to provide new connections soon. This is because if we provide new connections, it will hamper the old connections, as the total amount of electricity will be the same because of problems in distribution,” a senior REB official told The Independent.
He explained that all of REB’s lines are overloaded; if it tries to supply more power from its substations, then the lines can trip. That is why the authorities are not willing to supply more electricity from the existing lines even if the PDB allocates more power.
Under such circumstances, the government has held an inter-ministerial meeting with the officials at the Power Division to address the power crisis in the irrigation season. Demand for electricity will increase by 8 to 10 per cent during this period. Officials of the power and energy division, Petrobangla, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and the agriculture ministry were present.
At the meeting, it was observed that around 7,800 MW of electricity are needed to ensure the smooth supply of electricity to cater to the upcoming demands of the irrigation season. It was also noted that around 4 to 5 lakh tonnes of liquid fuel would be needed to run the 1,800-MW capacity rental power plants. To manage the situation, the power secretary has issued a series of directives to the officials concerned for carrying out load management, cutting gas supplies to the fertiliser industry, procuring fuel and ensuring supplies of uninterrupted electricity to the irrigation pumps from 11pm to 7am everyday during the irrigation season.
A central management committee has been formed to manage the expected load during the period of irrigation. “All distribution agencies would form such committees at their agencies to monitor the situation,” the PDB chairman told the meeting. “We have a plan on hand: to cut power supplies to urban areas and increase supplies to rural areas, as is usually
done in other years, for ensuring power supply to irrigation pumps during the summer,” a Power Division official said.
-With The Independent input
