Power struggle

The government has decided to enforce a nationwide daily one-hour of systemic area-based power cuts from today, as the country’s power generation is disrupted due to a fuel crisis.

In the first week, load-shedding will occur for one hour between 5pm and 11pm every day during the next week in every area across the country.

“Primarily, we will do this on an experimental basis. If needed, then after observing the situation for a week, we will revisit the plan and decide whether load-shedding would increase or decrease,” said State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Monday.

Addressing a press briefing at his secretariat office in the afternoon, he said that diesel-fired power plants will remain closed until further notice and petrol pumps will stay closed for one day every week to save fuel.

However, they are yet to decide when the decision to keep petrol pumps closed for a day every week will come into effect, he added.

“Conservative use of fuel by shutting down these power plants and keeping the pumps closed for a day will reduce fuel import by 20 per cent,” Nasrul said.

At the same time, he said, markets and shopping malls will not be allowed to remain open after 8pm to save

electricity. All religious institutions like mosques, temples and churches have been urged to go for power-saving measures, including turning on the air conditioners only during prayers, he said.

The state minister stressed, “Consumers will be notified in advance about the load-shedding schedule. Steps will be taken to ensure vehicles use less fuel.”

In this regard, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) Managing Director Bikash Dewan told The Business that their schedule of area-based load-shedding will be available on the DPDC website.

DPDC released the names of areas in Dhaka and Narayanganj and the respective timing for the hour-long load-shedding on its website on Monday evening.

Officials of other power distribution companies around the country also said they were working — although somewhat slowly — on creating the schedules.

“I think one hour of area-based load-shedding won’t lead to serious problems,” Nasrul said. But the government is prioritising uninterrupted supply to industrial and commercial consumers, he added.

Priority is to save fuel

All these decisions were taken at a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office earlier in the day, to cut fuel and power generation costs and avoid a major economic crisis in the backdrop of recent fuel price hikes in the international market.

The state minister said, “If we can save 20 per cent of diesel — 10 per cent from the power sector and 10 per cent from other sectors, the amount of foreign currency we will be able to save will be a great thing.”

“If we don’t make these decisions, the amount of money we pay for 10 per cent of diesel round the year, we will not earn that money back from the power sector. The electricity generated from diesel costs around Tk 35-40 per unit. But we are selling electricity at an average of Tk 7 per unit,” he explained.

Nasrul added that government subsidies will also drop if the import rate of diesel goes down.

He also reassured that the government is not thinking about hiking fuel prices at the moment. “Adjusting the prices is not the solution to this problem. We have to find out how much fuel we can/need to save.”

The prime minister’s energy adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Ahmad Kaikaus were present at Monday’s meeting along with other senior officials concerned.

Comparing the current crisis with a war-like situation, Tawfiq told the press briefing that stern actions will be taken against anyone defying these directives.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain on Monday also told reporters that the government was seriously considering reducing office hours and introducing work from home (WFH) and virtual meetings to save electricity.

The new office timings could be from 9am to 3pm or 4pm but it’s not decided yet, he added.

Power generation takes a hit

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) says about 51.49 per cent of the country’s electricity is generated using gas, while 26.90 per cent comes using furnace and diesel, 14.98 per cent from coal, 0.56 per cent from hydro, 0.37 per cent from renewables, and 10 per cent is imported.

BPDB says per unit electricity generation cost from diesel is over Tk 43 and furnace oil is Tk 14.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has been struggling to import fuel oil and petroleum and liquefied natural gas due to the taka’s depreciation against the US dollar and high import costs.

Addressing the media on Monday, Tawfiq said that the government’s latest moves aim to reduce expenditure on power generation.

“Plants using diesel to produce electricity will suspend operations from Monday. This will create a shortage of 1,000-1,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Hence, the area-based power cuts daily,” he added.

There was around 1,400 MW load shedding at 9pm Monday in different areas of the country, according to BPDB.

Because of the war…

The government claims that it is going down this path because of the fuel crisis mainly caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. However, energy experts disagree.

Nasrul said that these measures, forced by the war, are not long-term. “We have to be cost-effective.”

However, Professor Badrul Imam, a geology teacher at Dhaka University, told The Business Post that over-dependency on imports and long-time negligence of local resources were the major causes behind this energy crisis.

Dhaka and the rest of the country have been facing more frequent power cuts over the past few weeks since the fuel crisis hit Bangladesh. Power generation has so far decreased by an average of 2,000 MW per day.

The situation may become direr as many gas-fired power plants may shut down. Private power plants may also face the same crisis due to the rising global fuel prices.

Outside of the capital city, the most affected districts are in Mymensingh Division. Power cuts have also gone up in Chattogram, Chandpur, Noakhali, Feni, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Rajshahi, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Thakurgaon and Dinajpur over the past few days.

Experts say proper and planned load management may reduce people’s distress. Since no other measures are taken by the government, proper load management could be the only way to handle the gas and power cuts.

Power disruptions have also become frequent in many countries that have been hit by the gas crisis created by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Gas prices in Europe and Asia have increased by over 60 per cent over the past few weeks after they started climbing at the start of 2021, jumping as high as 700 per cent in Europe.