To address the incoming hot summer days and sweltering temperatures, the Power Division is planning to allow the operation of costly Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) based power plants largely if the mercury hits 42-43 degrees Celsius.
Currently, 25 big and small power plants remain inoperative due to various causes.
As per condition of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan package worth $4.7 billion in seven installments, the government slashed down production from high-cost HFO based plants production for reducing the subsidies in the power and energy sector.
"We will have to rely more on oil-fired plants, even though their generation cost is high," Power and Energy Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan told the media.
According to PDB, coal-based power plants cost Tk12-13 while gas-based plants cost Tk15 and oil-fired power plants cost Tk35-45 for each unit of power generation. But due to non availability of gas it failed to produce electricity from the gas fired power plants at full sewing.
PDB said there are 140 power plants with combined generation capacity of 27,013MW and 55 HFO based power plants have 5,663MW and five diesel fired power plants have 622MW generation capacity. However, if the government asks the private players to start operation it would be increase the power generation cost but they are ready to run their plants.
Meanwhile, the Power Division is set to sit with the stakeholders including the trade bodies next week and once again planning to issue formal letters to various sectors to inform the power generation situation in the days to come and take necessary measures in light with the situation.
The Power Division requested the Commerce Adviser to inform private businesses to support the government's plan to keep the power outages at tolerant level during the hot summer days.
Usually, demands for electricity go up significantly during the summer season, forcing the authorities to go for power rationing system to bridge the gap between the demand and supply.
As per demand side management plan, the government will continue the rationing and austerity measures, which was start during Ramadan and successfully manage the power crisis, but this time it would be more difficult as climate change has changes the weather pattern and South Asian countries are facing sever heat during summer time for last few years, a PDB official has said.
"We are once again making a call to all class of people to operate air conditioners at lower than 25 degrees Celsius (°C) in the upcoming summer, as we have crisis both in energy and power sector," Power Division Secretary Farzana Momtaz has said.
According to the Power Division Secretary, the power demand in peak hours could surge to 18,000 megawatts, however, if the temperature could raise around 42-43°C - levels and prolong three to five consecutive dates the situation would be worse. However, what would be the loadshedding it would be allocated eventually between the urban and rural consumers accordingly, she added.
"The main challenge in power and energy sector is primary fuel as there is no magic in government hand that could increase the supply of primary fuel, and at the same time dollar crisis is also a serious impediment in this regard," Energy adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan said.
To address the issue, BPDB board urged Petrobangla to ensure 1400 mmcf of gas for the power sector thus it could be able to run its gas based power plants to achieve its required plan to produce around 17,000 MW of electricity along with coal and liquid fuel run plants, however, the power plants are now getting around 800 to 900 mmcf gas per day.
However, Petrobangla is supplying around 3,800 mmcf gas (including the imported LNG) per day against the demand of 4,500 mmcf gas, however, the demand of gas would shoot up around 8,000 mmcf in upcoming summer for cooking, cooling and irrigation purposes, these allocation could not be able to address the crisis.
Either we should produce more gas from local sources or to import more LNG, coal and furnace oil to produce more energy to address energy demand during that time, unfortunately we don't have huge dollar to addresses the issue, the Adviser added.
The industrial sector is already facing a shortfall in supply for few months, he added.
The energy ministry says that the gas crisis cannot be solved quickly. While the gas production is declining the ability to import LNG is limited. Petrobangla is struggling. They are unable to secure dollars regularly, and bills for LNG imports are not being paid, which is disrupting imports.
PDB officials said, currently, oil-based plants are running from 5pm to 11pm, generating 3,000-3,500MW of electricity daily to compensate for the shortfall from gas and coal-fired plants.
