1,200mmcfd gas shortage likely in Ramadan

The country faces a shortage of natural gas of up to 1,200 million cubic feet a day (mmcfd) in the coming months due to rising demand for electricity during Holy Ramadan and the summer season.
Power Division projection paper said about 14,300 MW electricity and 1,550mmcfd gas will be needed at the peak hour from the first day of Ramadan, but Petrobangla has no magic wand to supply the primary fuel although many power generation plants are sitting idle.
"Petrobangla is supplying around 2,300mmcfd gas against the demand of 3,700mmcfd, these amounts included the imported LNG also, it showed we are heading towards big gas shortage, we were not able to run our power plants due to gas shortage," a senior official of the Energy Division said.
Under such circumstances, Power Division held a virtual inter-ministerial meeting on Sunday to address the problem and ensure power and energy supply during Ramadan and ongoing summer season, Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, addressed the meeting as the chief guest with State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid in the chair.
"Petrobangla has been directed to increase LNG supply into the national grid and coal      supply from Barapukuria mine to manage the situation," said a senior official preferring anonymity. Finally, the meeting concluded without making any headway, he added.
Officials said the country has been facing severe gas crisis from December of 2020. "We did not recognise it as the industrial and commercial demands were very low due to the pandemic, but we cannot think of such a situation during Ramadan and the summer, we need to ensure energy supply to generate huge power, the official said.
In February and March of 2021, the power plants received only 855mmcfd and 1119mmcfd gas against its demand of 1069mmcfd and 1137mmcfd during the same period a year earlier, PDB said due to gas shortage it was compelled to operate the high cost liquid fuel run power plants during winter.
The PDB also said that the supply of natural gas was 1278mmcfd against the demand of 1539mmcfd in March.
"We need around 1550mmcfd gas to run our 65 gas-fired power plants having combined capacity to generate 10,872 MW electricity against a total capacity of 21,312 MW. But every day, they (Petrobangla) failed to fulfill their commitment," PDB official said.
According to the Bangladesh Power Development Board, 11 gas-based combined cycle power plants have faced acute gas supply shortages leading to failure in their electricity generation by around 1,349 MW against a combined capacity of 3,240 MW.
The power plants are Haripur 360 MW CCPP (HPL), two units of Siddhirganj 120 MW each, Haripur 412 MW CCPP, Shikalbaha 225 MW CCPP, 398 MW Ashuganj TPP Unit-3, 4 and 5, Ashuganj 195 MW PP (united), RPCL 210 MW CCPP, 383 MW Bibiyana South CCPP, Baghabari 171 MW GT and Bheramara 410 MW CCPP.
PDB's paper said the generation of electricity has come down to 1,891 MW from the plants against the capacity of 3,240 MW as they are getting only 349mmcfd gas against the requirement of  610 million cubic per day (mmcfd).
Finally, the meeting suggested ensuring and increasing gas supply to power plants and taking necessary arrangements for power generation as per peak hour (evening) demand as before.
"Aware about load shedding, the meeting said all concerned to avoid load shedding during Iftar, Tarabi prayers and Sehri time and informed consumers before load shedding was the final destiny of the consumers although we could produce around 16,000 MW of electricity," a frustrated official comments.