New act to help solve power crisis quickly
Says PM's energy adviser
The government has framed the Power and Energy Fast Supply Enhancement (Special Provision) Act, 2010 with a view to taking quick steps to address the power crisis in the country.
Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Dr Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said this while he was speaking at a workshop titled "Development of power sector and role of media" at Bidyut Bhaban in the city yesterday. Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) organised the workshop.
"The new act has been framed to squeeze the steps which got restrained due to time shortage in the previous act," he said, adding that it would help solve the energy problems quickly.
He said the act precludes the lower court's jurisdiction to review actions done under this law.
Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, State Minister for Power Enamul Haq and Additional Secretary of Power Division Taposh Pal also spoke at the workshop.
The speakers underscored the need for domestic coal for power generation in order to reach the target of total power generation capacity of 35,000 to 40,000 megawatts (MW) within 2030.
"Of the total generation, at least 15,000MW of power would have to be from coal, making it important to develop our coal mitigating the environmental and other issues," said BPDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir.
Stressing tariff rationalisation, Kabir said though the electricity tariff needs to be increased by 53 percent, a board proposal suggesting 12 percent tariff increase in every six months has been sent to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
He said the government would withdraw its decision of giving new power connections to the consumers from November 1, and rather provide connections in phases as a huge number of people are in the queue.
Kabir said the new potential consumers should install solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to decrease the load.
Presenting the current scenario of the power sector in a keynote paper, BPDB Director (system and planning) Mizanur Rahman said they have a plan to produce 11,456MW of power by 2015.
The presentation showed that the work of eight quick rental power plants, four rental power plants and few peaking power plants is going on beyond the target.
The contract of Barisal rental power plant might be cancelled as its work is going on very slowly, Mizanur.
Journalists from different media put up recommendations at the workshop.
Azad urged the media to present the proper scenario of the country's electricity situation before the masses apart from giving constructive criticism.
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