The government is planning to install 71 additional power plants capable of producing 10,970MW of electricity under the private and public sectors by 2018.
Most of these power plants will be gas-based, but are likely to face shortages of adequate gas supply. Some of the planned power plants will also be constructed on dual fuel basis, running on gas or oil.
If the proposed power plants become operational, the country’s power generation capacity will be increased to 21,311MW from the current 10,341MW.
The remarks were included in a booklet titled “Development in power and energy sector: A Journey of Success,” which was published based on Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s budget speech on Thursday.
In the booklet, Muhith said apart from increasing domestic production, the new plants will generate and allocate power through bilateral, multilateral and regional agreements with neighbors India, Bhutan and Nepal.
According to the government’s plans, state-run Petrobangla will extract 21 new development wells by 2016 with a capacity of 595 millions of cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas; however, the amount will be inadequate to run the newly planned gas-based power plants.
On the other hand, the government does not have plans for the years 2017 and 2018.
The country has been facing gas shortages for the past five years, and the crisis is likely to continue as the demand far exceeds the supply.
Against a daily demand of 3,000mmcfd, Petrobangla is now able to supply 2,300mmcfd of gas, leaving a shortage of 700mmcfd.
Unless fresh gas reserves are found and developed quickly, the new plants will not be able to go into production. Moreover, the plants will have to depend on imported diesel and furnace oil, which is likely to increase production costs.
Currently, the Power Development Board buys a unit of electricity from a gas-based plant for less than Tk2, whereas per unit cost from a plant run on diesel or furnace oil is Tk15-Tk18.
During its previous tenure, the Awami League-led government had built 59 power plants, each with a capacity of 5,008MW, to meet the growing demand.