Pakistan Defence
Generation target 14000 MW
Power sector needs $15b investment
. Kazi Zahidul Hasan
http://thenewnationbd.com/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=59876
The country's power sector needs $15 billion investment to generate 14,000 megawatt (mw) electricity by 2016, officials said yesterday.
Earlier, the government in its power sector master plan set a target of adding about 14,000mw electricity to the national grid by 2016 in order to attain 8.0 per cent GDP growth. It also set a target to produce 20,000mw electricity by 2021.
"Steps are underway to generate electricity to the tune of 14,000mw by 2016 and to achieve the milestone Bangladesh needs an investment of $15 billion," a senior Power Division official told The New Nation yesterday.
As per the plan, he added, the Power Ministry is needed to raise the investment on new power generation, transmission and distribution projects by 2016.
"We are executing the plan to increase capacity and conversion of the existing plants to combined-cycle technology and building new ones mixing different types of fuels," he added.
When asked how such a large amount of fund will be arranged, he said, "Of the total amount, the funding arrangement has been intended to 50:50 basis from both the public and private sector."
The Power Division official also said that the government could not bear such a big amount for implementing all the power sector's infrastructure projects alone due to fund constrains. "So, we have to attract private and foreign investment to finance the projects," he noted.
Moreover, the government has started collecting funds from the multilateral donors in a bid to ensuring funding supports. Funds will also be collected under public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
"The government revised private sector power generation policy providing a number of incentives for the private and foreign investment in the power sector to transform Bangladesh into electricity surplus country," he added.
The official also said that the Power Development Board (PDB) has already struck deals for 58 power projects with an install capacity of 7,649mw. Of which, a total of 31 power plants have come into operation and they have added 2,601mw electricity to the national grid.
Construction work of 28 power projects with a generation capacity of 5,048mw is underway.
Besides, invitation of tender for setting up 22 more power projects having capacity of 3394mw is under process.
"We are expecting to complete the tender process of these power plants by the next six months," he noted.
PDB sources said, until September this year, the present government has added 3,595mw electricity to the national grid.
"We set the target of generating electricity to bridge the gap between demand and supply," he said adding that electricity demand in Bangladesh has been increasing by 200mw per year since 1996.
In Bangladesh, electricity is being produced using five types of energy. About 80 per cent of the daily electricity is being produced using gas, while furnace oil and diesel are used for producing 17 per cent. Water and coal produces 3 per cent.
Presently, the country has an install power generation capacity of 8,275mw. But the daily electricity generation is hovering between 5,700 and 6,000mw against daily average demand of 6,600mw.
The highest generation was recorded at 6,300mw on August 04, 2012.
According to a study, the power outage in Bangladesh results a loss of annual industrial output of $1.0 billion.
Power sector needs $15b investment
. Kazi Zahidul Hasan
http://thenewnationbd.com/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=59876
The country's power sector needs $15 billion investment to generate 14,000 megawatt (mw) electricity by 2016, officials said yesterday.
Earlier, the government in its power sector master plan set a target of adding about 14,000mw electricity to the national grid by 2016 in order to attain 8.0 per cent GDP growth. It also set a target to produce 20,000mw electricity by 2021.
"Steps are underway to generate electricity to the tune of 14,000mw by 2016 and to achieve the milestone Bangladesh needs an investment of $15 billion," a senior Power Division official told The New Nation yesterday.
As per the plan, he added, the Power Ministry is needed to raise the investment on new power generation, transmission and distribution projects by 2016.
"We are executing the plan to increase capacity and conversion of the existing plants to combined-cycle technology and building new ones mixing different types of fuels," he added.
When asked how such a large amount of fund will be arranged, he said, "Of the total amount, the funding arrangement has been intended to 50:50 basis from both the public and private sector."
The Power Division official also said that the government could not bear such a big amount for implementing all the power sector's infrastructure projects alone due to fund constrains. "So, we have to attract private and foreign investment to finance the projects," he noted.
Moreover, the government has started collecting funds from the multilateral donors in a bid to ensuring funding supports. Funds will also be collected under public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
"The government revised private sector power generation policy providing a number of incentives for the private and foreign investment in the power sector to transform Bangladesh into electricity surplus country," he added.
The official also said that the Power Development Board (PDB) has already struck deals for 58 power projects with an install capacity of 7,649mw. Of which, a total of 31 power plants have come into operation and they have added 2,601mw electricity to the national grid.
Construction work of 28 power projects with a generation capacity of 5,048mw is underway.
Besides, invitation of tender for setting up 22 more power projects having capacity of 3394mw is under process.
"We are expecting to complete the tender process of these power plants by the next six months," he noted.
PDB sources said, until September this year, the present government has added 3,595mw electricity to the national grid.
"We set the target of generating electricity to bridge the gap between demand and supply," he said adding that electricity demand in Bangladesh has been increasing by 200mw per year since 1996.
In Bangladesh, electricity is being produced using five types of energy. About 80 per cent of the daily electricity is being produced using gas, while furnace oil and diesel are used for producing 17 per cent. Water and coal produces 3 per cent.
Presently, the country has an install power generation capacity of 8,275mw. But the daily electricity generation is hovering between 5,700 and 6,000mw against daily average demand of 6,600mw.
The highest generation was recorded at 6,300mw on August 04, 2012.
According to a study, the power outage in Bangladesh results a loss of annual industrial output of $1.0 billion.