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A section of PDB men oppose foreign private capital in power sector
AS tl»e government moves closer to allowing foreign pri-| vale investment in the power sector, a section of PDB men fear this would lead to an almost doubling of the electricity tariff.
Power development Board officials told UNB that most of the 22 offers received by the government so far from prospective foreign investors lack comprehensiveness.
Interested investors Include companies from the US. India. Russia and China. Already memoranda of understanding have been signed with compa-. nles from two countries.
According to sources In the PDB. the lowest bidder among the applicants keen to build
power plants in this country has quoted 6.5 cents (almost Taka 2.60) per unit at the plant level which, at the subscriber level’ is likely to cost 11 cents or nearly Tk 4.40.
Besides, sources in the state electricity monopoly also said that these companies have demanded a 90 per cent consumption guarantee, meaning that the PDB would have to pay them the price of the guaran-
teed units.even if that power Is not used.
The Installed generating capacity of the country's existing steam, turbine, hydro diesel and combined cycle power stations together is about 2800 n»egawatts.
The amount of power actually produced and transmitted into the national grid line is much less due to ageing of thy
equipment temporary shutdown of the power stations for regular maintenance on alternative basis.
Consumption of power at four peak hours during the evening reach- 1900 mw. pausing loadshedding at times. The demand during the rest of 20 hours varies from 1100 mw to 1300 mw.
With the present consumption rate, setting up private power stations will mean the government has to provide significant amount in subsidy on power or charge the subscribers a( almost double the present rate, some PDB men Indicated..
They suggested setting up of plants under suppliers' credit should be the only alternative for a T*hird World country like Bangladesh. "Bangladesh is not yet ready for setting up private power plants.” said one of the PDB officiate.
Tne government already provides substantial subsidy on gas. which is even below its economic cost, to the PDB for generating power.
The PDB generates a unit of electricity a Tk 2.30 and sells it at Tk 1.60.