Rental power plants
Photo: Liton Rahman /Driknews
The very purpose of the rental power station is to provide electricity within a very short time mainly during the irrigation season. With this in mind, the government has decided to install 250 mw diesel fired four rental power stations within three months. It is learnt from newspapers that for purchase of rental power PDB has to incur a loss of about taka 17 thousand crore by which three 500mw coal fired power stations can be built. A total of 530mw new rental generation, if available, cannot also meet the total requirement of irrigation which is about 1500 mw, but it may ease the power generation scenario of the country at a high price to serve 40% of population having access to electricity. As there is no dedicated electricity distribution system to supply power to irrigation pumps, the high cost rental power will be mixed up with low cost /quality electricity and will be consumed in a fashion 'business as usual' for domestic purpose, foiling the basic spirit of purchasing high cost rental power. After the irrigation season is over, naturally, the rental power will continue generation for normal use at the prevailing tariff adding further loss to PDB. Like previous years, the better solution to meet the irrigation load is to divert power from town to village to run the irrigation pumps for harvesting bumper crops to earn food security.
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