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Power Generation

Use renewable energy to cut cost

Suggests Matia

Staff Correspondent
The government should focus more on renewable energy for power generation, as dependence on imported petroleum products is proving costly amid dwindling gas reserves, the agriculture minister said yesterday.
"At this moment, we will not be able to extract coal, as we do not have scientific methods. Neither the gas reserve is sufficient", Matia Chowdhury said. So more focus should be on renewable energy, she added.
"...when we planned for rental power plants, the price of oil was about US$82 a barrel. It is now over $129 a barrel. The economy, thus, is under pressure to accommodate the increase", she said.
The minister made her observation and recommendation at the inaugural ceremony of a workshop organised for leading experts and chiefs of the various state-run energy related companies at Bidyut Bhaban in the city yesterday.
The two-day event, aimed at finding ways out to further improve the country's power and energy sectors, was organised by the power, energy, and mineral resources ministry.
Bangladesh has targeted to take its electricity generation capacity to 38,185 megawatts (MW) by 2030, anticipating that the demand would rise to 33.708MW.
The government, however, plans to produce only 111MW of electricity from renewable energy sources, which, according to the agriculture minister, is too low. Her comments also poured cold water on the Power
Development Board's (PDB) plan to produce 9.850MW of electricity from domestic coal.
Bangladesh has discovered five coalmines, which have a combined reserve of about 2,797 million tonnes of high quality bituminous coal. But the country is failing to extract the natural resource due to indecision over extraction method.
The agriculture minister said she does not think that the common people would not be interested in setting up solar energy system.
Energy Adviser to the Prime Minister, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, called for coordination among all stakeholders to implement the country's power vision by 2021, saying, "It will not be tough to achieve the target if everybody works in unison".
He said the government would have to work hard to construct the transmission line to take power to the people.
On average, Bangladesh produces 5,000MW of electricity, taking power to half of the population, according to the PDB.
Sheikh M Wahid-Uz-Zaman, principal secretary to the prime minister, said Bangladesh would have to spend $48.5 billion to implement its power sector master plan.
The government has drawn up plans to improve the power situation, but implementation is the biggest challenge now, said Energy Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin said.
Muhammad Enamul Huq, state minister for power, and Abul Kalam Azad, power secretary, also spoke.