Asifur Rahman

A proposed “cross-subsidy surcharge” on customers who buy electricity directly from private power plants drew strong opposition at a public hearing of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) yesterday.

Electricity imports from India are set to become slightly more expensive as the country moves to introduce a recurring charge for scheduling, metering and reconciling cross-border power transactions.

The impact of the gas crisis that began on July 21 is spreading across the country’s industrial belts, with factories cutting production, shutting units and sending workers on leave.

Big factories and industries hoping to save money by buying electricity directly from private power plants, instead of the national grid, may find those savings shrink sharply if a new set of proposed fees are implemented, according to an analysis of the proposals.

The beleaguered Excelerate Energy LNG terminal at Moheshkhali is likely to be offline until August 23 after it ran out of gas yesterday afternoon.

Excelerate FSRU may remain offline until August 23, when its next LNG consignment is due

Bangladesh’s gas supply situation has improved from the severe shortages seen last week, but industries are yet to see a meaningful recovery as a larger share of the limited supply is now being diverted to power plants.

Bangladesh’s LNG supply has recovered with both floating terminals at Maheshkhali back in operation, but the gas crisis is unlikely to ease significantly, with combined LNG send-out expected to remain at around 70 percent of the two terminals’ combined capacity over this week at least.

Just as the Summit LNG terminal resumed feeding the national grid yesterday, Excelerate Energy’s terminal went offline following another technical fault, prolonging the severe gas shortage that has stifled economic activities.

The gas crisis, which is in its fourth week, took a turn for the worse after Summit’s floating LNG terminal ran out of gas around 5:00pm yesterday.

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Citing the rapid depletion of its cash reserves, BPC said continued losses could affect its ability to open letters of credit (LCs) for future fuel imports, according to minutes of a BPC board meeting in July.

Power shortages have worsened sharply across the country as electricity demand rebounded after recent rains, while disruptions in coal handling compounded a continued shortage of gas for power generation.

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Every disruption at floating terminals spirals into national gas crisis

Bangladesh’s rooftop solar industry is nearing a milestone of 1,000 megawatts (MW) in installed capacity, but regulatory and policy barriers could undermine its growth momentum, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Over 3,000MW of loadshedding recorded yesterday

The situation has deteriorated since the country’s pipeline gas supply dropped by more than 17 percent following the July 22 accident at an Excelerate Energy-operated liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal

Bangladesh is exploring importing LNG from Malaysia in ISO tank containers to supply to industries and power plants directly, potentially providing a faster solution to the country’s gas crisis without requiring a new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).