The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries on Saturday has suggested rationing electricity or hour-long load shedding in unproductive industrial sectors to avoid hiking power prices further.
“If the price of electricity and gas in the industrial sector goes up, the cost of production will go up as well and there will be inflation. There are many power plants which have low productivity. Their production may be stopped,” FBCCI President Jasim Uddin made the remark at a press conference over the proposal to increase electricity and gas prices in Dhaka.
Mentioning that many countries are leaning towards rationing systems to reduce loss and pressure on power and Bangladesh could adopt such a system as well.
“If necessary, 1-2 hour load shedding can be accepted in the unproductive sectors,” he added.
There are various systemic problems in the power sector, the FBCCI president mentioned. Such problems include overcapacity. At present, the country's power generation capacity is 22,000 MW, but the demand is 14,000 MW.
The low efficiency of oil-based power plants, delay in commissioning of coal-based power plants, and the erroneous planning of the LNG supply chain are some of the other problems in this sector. These systemic problems need to be properly identified and their solutions should be effectively planned without increasing the price of electricity, Jasim Uddin stressed.
In order to reduce production costs, the country needs to move towards coal-fired power plants, he remarked.
“Although environmentalists oppose it, industrialisation cannot be stopped simply based on that. India, America, and others are building coal-fired power plants. India says they need to run coal power by 2050. We need it too,” Jasim Uddin said.
In order to reduce the cost of electricity and gas, he recommended measures, including radical changes in the overall management of the energy and power sector, putting a stop to all kinds of irregularities and wastage, disconnecting illegal connections, shutting down inefficient power plants, reduce overhead costs, and putting a stop to capacity charges so as to stop paying lazy producers.
