Energy is one front that Bangladesh has seen a fair deal of progress made over the past decade with projects such as the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and the Rampal Coal Power Plant being two of the biggest projects.
However, despite the infrastructural progress, energy security still remains elusive for our nation. With Bangladesh harbouring over 70 independent power producers, why exactly is securing adequate energy still a problem for us?
According to a Daily Star report, at least 15% of all independent power plants had been left completely inert for almost 80% of the time in the last fiscal year, which led the national power board to purchase at much higher rates compared to the average purchase price.
Given just how severe a toll the global energy crisis -- which followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago -- was on Bangladesh, any discrepancies within our own power generation efforts cannot be tolerated especially at such a critical juncture in our overall development trajectory.
The Power Development Board (PDB) cannot remain subservient to the whims of power producers. It is indeed quite clear that sweeping reformations are needed in Bangladesh’s energy generation model itself which, as it stands, is barely producing enough power to meet demands while also doing no favours to the economy in the process.
Factors such as the Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provision) Act 2010 need to be amended in a way that leaves little room for unscrupulous power producers to keep profiting without any meaningful power output.