The government has decided to install solar-powered charging stations in six divisional headquarters for electricity-powered three wheelers, such as easy-bikes, and battery-run rickshaws, in an attempt to ease pressure on the national power grid.
“If it was possible to set up the battery charging stations in the private sector, the pressure on the national power grid could be reduced. An easy-bike needs six to 11 units of electricity a day,” Power Cell Director General Mohammad Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.
“At present the easy-bikes are being charged from household connections, putting extra pressure on the national grid,” he said.
More than 400,000 electricity-powered easy-bikes operate across the country, consuming more than 400MW of electricity per day.
The easy-bikes have a set of five batteries with a capacity of 60V, which consume 1kW of electricity daily and take 4-5 hours to be fully charged.
Setting up a new charging station – with solar panels capable of producing 125kW of electricity – would require around Tk1.5 crore.
With every station having the capacity to recharge 120 sets of batteries daily, setting a price of Tk50 for a single round of recharging would allow the stations to earn Tk6,000 per day and almost Tk22 lakh annually.
Existing commercial charging stations collect power from the national grid, and charge users Tk60-70 to charge a single set of batteries.
Under a pilot project, six stations would be installed in divisional cities, excluding Dhaka, at a cost of Tk10.5 crore.
A top official at the Bangladesh Power Development Board said two-thirds of the existing battery-run rickshaws run on electricity pilfered by connecting metal hooks directly to supply lines, while the rest depend on plugging into domestic connections, neither of which is acceptable.
Most easy-bikes charge their batteries by connecting illegally to the power grid, depriving the government of a large amount of revenue, he added.
“The government and the people will be benefited if the charging stations are set up,” said Md Shahjahan Mridha Benu, president of Bangladesh Electric Vehicle Importers Association.
The electricity-run “green” vehicles neither use fossil fuel nor emit carbon, he said, adding that the vehicles were a useful transport service, and were good for the environment and business.
The vehicles do not pollute the air, are safe and faster, as well as being driver-friendly and carrying two or three times more passengers for a lower than man-driven rickshaws, Benu claimed.
