Editorial
New power connections
Cheery but testing
That the government has decided to provide power connections in phases to nearly 12 lakh residential buildings and commercial units after a ban of two years is indeed welcome news. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has already started giving connections to new subscribers. The fact that this is due to improved power situation in the country is obvious but doubly heartening.
However, the authorities have put certain conditions to be met by recipients. Under new arrangements, the users are to get solar energy systems installed at their premises to enjoy the facility. This may be a tall ask.
Residential buildings using up to two kilowatt of electricity a day will have to meet five percent of their power consumption from renewable energy sources. It is seven percent for commercial buildings and factories consuming 50 kilowatt of electricity and 10 percent for the users of power above 50 kilowatt.
With a number of new power plants going into commercial production Bangladesh now produces up to 4300 MW of electricity against a demand of 6000 MW a day. We still run short of the requirement. This may have impelled the authorities to add some conditions as referred to above to secure the connections. We would have expected the extension of power network to have had a timeframe.
Our power industry still has a go long way to go to meet the national demand with fifty one percent of the population remaining out of the power network. However, the BPDB's plans to produce 200 MW of electricity per month from the second half of this year to add 2000 MW to the national grid in 2011 should be implemented without fail.
Much as we commend the reported headway we are concerned about the management and maintenance of the network. We are still plagued by frequent power outage and lack of maintenance. With the addition of new users and power supply in deficit BPDB will be tested on its promise of providing more than a million new connections and yet overcome the outage crisis.
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