BPDB appeals to BERC for bulk power price hike    

State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has filed a review appeal with the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to raise bulk power tariff.

“We have filed an appeal with the BERC on Sunday to review its previous decision rejecting a proposal to increase bulk power price,” BPDB director Shameem Hasan told The Business Post on Tuesday evening.

On condition of anonymity, a senior BPDB official said that State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid also approved the review appeal.

Earlier on October 13, energy prices regulator BERC rejected a BPDB proposal to hike bulk power tariff, saying that the aggrieved party can submit an appeal within 30 working days proposing to review the regulator’s decision.

“In compliance with the 30-day tenure, we have submitted our review appeal”, said the top BPDB official.

In this regard, BERC Director (power) Rezaul Karim Khan said the energy prices regulator is now scrutinising the review appeal submitted by BPDB.

Rejecting the BPDB proposal on October 13, BERC Chairman Abdul Jalil said that some of the private companies that buy power from BPDB have not submitted their transaction data.

“There was ambiguity in data. That is why we could not analyse the impact of any rise in bulk tariff on the consumers,” he told reporters.

The current socio-economic and power supply situations were considered when making the BERC decision, he noted. As a result, the wholesale electricity tariff remained the same as announced in February 2020.

The last public hearing on a proposal of the state-owned BPDB to raise bulk power tariff was held on May 18. The BPDB placed a proposal to raise bulk power tariff by 65.57 per cent at the public hearing while the technical evaluation committee of BERC recommended a 57.83 per cent hike.