Power situation will improve within 15 days: State Minister

Anindya Islam Amit, State Minister for Power and Energy, has expressed optimism in the National Parliament that there will be visible improvement in the country’s power situation within the next 15 days. He said the government is making the highest effort so that the suffering that had to be endured regarding power and gas supply in August does not happen again in September.

The state minister said this in the National Parliament in reply to a supplementary question of opposition Member of Parliament Nurul Islam Bulbul regarding the ongoing power crisis of the country on Wednesday. The session of Parliament started at 3:30pm under the chairmanship of Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad.

Anindya Islam Amit said, “I am saying with responsibility, I do not want to hide the real truth behind mere words. Currently the people of Bangladesh are in hardship due to the supply of power and gas in the recent time.” He also informed that sorrow has been expressed from the government’s side for this situation.

The state minister said, “The current crisis has been created as the inevitable consequence of long-term wrong policies in the power and energy sector. The recent Middle East crisis has also created new pressure along with this.” He informed that the Middle East crisis came forward within a short time after the current government took responsibility, the impact of which has fallen on energy supply.

The state minister also highlighted the limitation of excessive dependence on gas in power generation. He said, “The generation capacity of the gas-based power plants of Bangladesh is 12,000 megawatts. 1,900 million cubic feet of gas is needed every day to generate this amount of power. However, currently it is possible to supply 2,300 to 2,700 million cubic feet of gas through domestic production and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).”

He said, “If only the use of gas in power generation is increased, crisis will be created in gas supply to other sectors including industry and residential. Therefore, balance has to be brought in gas supply to all sectors—industry, power and household.”

Anindya Islam Amit also mentioned the matter of several power plants remaining closed behind the ongoing crisis. He informed that a unit of 616 megawatts capacity of Payra Power Plant is closed due to technical fault. A unit of the same capacity of Matarbari Power Plant is also closed for maintenance.

The state minister also highlighted in Parliament the matter of not getting power as per the contract from India’s Adani Group. He said, “Although 1,600 megawatts of power was supposed to be received as per the contract, currently about 900 megawatts is being received during the day and about 1,100 megawatts in the evening.”

Besides, he informed that a major pressure had been created in the energy supply system due to faults appearing in the two floating LNG terminals (FSRU) used for the supply of imported LNG. A fault appeared in one FSRU on July 21 and it took about 22 days to repair that. Its impact also fell on power generation. However, the state minister claimed that it has been possible to resolve about 88 percent of the crisis.

He emphasised the quick commissioning of the closed units of Payra and Matarbari Power Plants to handle the situation. He also expressed optimism that the power situation will improve within the next 15 days.

The state minister also informed about taking long-term initiatives including rooftop solar power to tackle the power crisis next summer. They are optimistic that due to the rooftop solar power policy that the government has taken, people will not have to endure suffering like the current time next summer.

Mentioning the concern of Members of Parliament regarding the power and energy sector as normal, the state minister said real information will be informed to the representatives of the people and efforts will be made to remove the misunderstandings existing regarding the power and energy sector.