Rental power
Photo: Shafiqul Islam Kajol /Driknews
Dr. Abdul Matin, a former Chief Engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, wrote an article in The Daily Star on May 5, 2010 on the government's policy of going for rental power for an interim solution of the present power crisis. He has convincingly explained that it is an unwise decision of the government to go for rental power contracts ranging from three to five years as rental power is traditionally used for short periods during an emergency or as a standby power source for big events, like Olympics. The government organization PDB is to buy power at Tk. 13.32 to 14.4 per Kwh from two rental power companies for supplying 300MW of power to the national grid. PDB will receive a monthly subsidy of Tk. 200 crore to make up the loss as its selling rate of electricity is only Tk.2.37 per Kwh. During the contract period of three years, the government will thus spend Tk. 7200 crore of public money for these two contracts of rental power. It is learnt that the government is going to arrange about 500--1000MW of rental power for provisional relief from the severe power crisis. So, it is not difficult to calculate the amount of public money to be drained out for such short-lived solution of the power shortage. But it is also learnt that the power ministry is giving rental power contracts of furnace oil operated plants having higher capacity diesel engines for a period of five years with provision of extending the contracts. This seems to be a wiser decision and for the sake of proper use of the limited resources of this poor country, the government should think of long term solution even if that means a little more suffering of the people as lion's share of the electricity is used for domestic needs. Unless we go for wider use of electricity for industrial and other productive activities to have reasonable return on investment, our socio-economic condition will not improve.
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