The Power Division fears a huge financial loss, resulting from a fall of demand in electricity, caused by the coronavirus crisis.
It fears the current gap between demand and supply may rise further, leading to an increase in surplus in electricity generation.
“We’re expecting huge financial losses in the power sector, coming from multiple directions, from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic,” Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, told UNB.
He said the extent of financial loss likely to occur is still unclear.
“But it is certain the loss will be huge and I’ve already asked the Power Cell to make an assessment,” he said, adding that Power Cell will take help from foreign consultants to conduct the assessment, if necessary.
Sources at the power industry said field-level work in power projects came to a halt when general holidays were announced in late March to prevent spreading of coronavirus in the country.
Transmission and distribution projects will suffer the most, as these projects have to be implemented outdoors, said a top Power Division official.
He noted that most of the contractors of these projects are either Chinese, or their equipment comes from China, a country heavily impacted by the outbreak.
“The delay in these projects means further rise in the gap between demand and supply,” he said, adding that the government has already been incurring financial loss of over Tk6,000 crore a year, due to surplus in electricity generation.
So, if the gap rises further, the financial loss will increase, he said.
Nasrul Hamid said the Power Division was expecting large industries to resume operation in the coming days, pushing up electricity demand from 11,000 MW to 15,000 MW, against generation capacity of over 20,000 MW.
“But the pandemic-stricken economic situation doesn’t suggest the demand will grow to 15,000 MW,” he said.
He said the country’s generation capacity will continue to grow in coming years as a good number of base-load plants will go into operation.
Officials said a number of base-load plants are scheduled to start operation within the next three year s. These plants include 1,320 MW Rampal Power Plant, 1,200 MW Rampal power, and 2,400 MW Rooppur nuclear power plant.
Another 1,600 MW of electricity will be imported from India as per contract.
Coronavirus has so far infected 1,231 people and killed 50 people in Bangladesh.
Globally, the disease has infected 2,084,744 people and killed 134,685 people thus far.
