#Title

Not improving anytime soon
FROM PAGE 1
Meanwhile, business association leaders have started complaining that production at the factories all over the country is being interrupted.
To make matters worse, coal shortage will see the 1,320MW Payra power plant, the country’s largest, completely shut down tonight for at least 25 days. This will widen the gap between supply and demand and effectively cause more power cuts.
Production at one of its two units was suspended on May 25. Power cuts have been more frequent since then.
To get its shipment of coal, the Payra authorities must open Letters of Credit (LC), which they have not done yet.
“LCs will be opened by this week. But it will take at least 20-25 more days for the shipment to arrive,” Shah Abdul Haseeb, superintendent engineer at the plant, told The Daily Star.
PDB officials say they have plans to operate several “unutilised” plants in Khulna and Barishal regions to increase production.
“A new coal-based power plant will start operation from this week, and we will import more electricity from India’s Adani power,” said PDB member SM Wazed Ali Sardar.
“We are taking measures to prevent the situation from deteriorating any further,” he added.
Adani Power has recently been supplying more than its commissioned capacity of 750MW. It supplied over 1,000MW yesterday.
Besides, Chattogram’s SS power plant is going to supply to the national grid from this week, said the PDB member, adding that these would somewhat fill the gap created by the shut down of Payra plant.
However, energy expert Prof M Shamsul Alam said there was no logic behind the claim. “The government has power plants, but it doesn’t analyse how much coal or fuel will be needed over a certain period. That’s why they blame the dollar crisis one moment, and talk about another crisis the next.
“It is not acceptable that the new power plants will fill the gap left by another power plant. They will only increase generation capacity, which often remains unutilised.
The country has been producing and importing around 11,500MW during daytime peak hours and around 13,500MW during evening peak for the last couple of weeks.
The total generation capacity is 23,370MW. Over the last couple of months, around 2,500MW capacity remained offline for maintenance and around 4,500MW for fuel crisis.
Yesterday, Dhaka’s two power distribution companies were short of 570MW, which left the city dwellers with three to four hours of outages.
Nasrul Hamid yesterday said the ministry had been trying for the last two months to ensure uninterrupted supply of coal, gas and fuel to the plants, but it failed because LCs were not opened on time.
Payra, Barapukuria and some other power plants are running at half their capacities because of shortages of coal, gas, and fuel, he said.