• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Bangladesh to Formulate Fresh Guideline on Purchasing Electricity From Private Plants

Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 09:00 CDT

Bangladesh to formulate fresh guideline on purchasing electricity from private plants

DHAKA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) --The Bangladeshi government is set to formulate a fresh guideline on procurement of electricity from captive power plants owned by private entrepreneurs on an emergency basis to help reduce the country's nagging power shortage.

"The policy will outline a strategy for purchasing the surplus electricity from the captive power plants for supplying to the national grid and meet the power demand during the peak hours," a senior official of the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) was quoted by The Financial Express as saying on Friday.

He said the guideline might provide an indication about electricity pricing, which would be a win-win situation for both the government and the private entrepreneurs.

Some 250 megawatt (MW) surplus electricity could be added to the national grid, once the guideline is approved and subsequently implemented, the report quoted MPEMR sources as saying.

The Power Development Board (PDB) sources said the new policy would save the government from investing around 10 billion taka ( about 150 million US dollars) which would have been required for generating the power in the absence of supplies by the captive power plants.

Under the present market price, the installation cost of a 10 MW power plant is about 400 million taka (about 6 million dollars), a senior PDB official was quoted as saying.

Currently, over 1000 MW electricity is produced by private entrepreneurs in their captive power plants for use in their industries across the country.

But some 250 MW electricity produced by such captive power plants is remaining unused for long, which the guideline is underway to tap.

MPEMR sources said the government could procure the surplus power at a competitive price under the policy that would help reduce the power shortage to a large extent.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

More News in this Category