Power crisis
G. R. Sohail / Driknews
Every year, at the beginning of the summer a crisis looms large - power shortage. It has been going on for decades and there is no sign of relief in reality other than some vague statements from our leaders, especially political leaders and sometimes from the bureaucrats in order to please their bosses. But I do not see any real action or policy in place that can solve the problem even in the next 10 years. As a professional engineer working in the power sector, I feel for the people in Bangladesh and am worried about the financial impact the crisis is causing (going to be worse in the coming years). It is like a vicious circle, we have to spend more because we do not have enough which drives us to an even poorer level to spend even more. The industries and housing sectors are using expensive generators and we are wasting millions of hard-earned dollars on these equipment and the fuel because we do not have a reliable power system. The production cost of garment sector is higher because they have to use generators and expensive fuel. A reliable power system would lower the production cost of all products and make Bangladesh more attractive to the buyers. A country cannot make progress of any kind if it does not have a sound and reliable power system. This is the bottom line. If our policy makers do not understand this and think Bangladesh can attract substantial foreign investment, then the future does not look very bright to me. The power sector should be given the top priority in the infrastructure development. Any compromise in this sector would derail the whole economy. The successful operation and planning of a sound power system network fundamentally depends on accurate and proper modelling of the network. The building blocks of a sound power system network are Network Data, System Modelling, System Operation and System Planning . As a state-owned organisation, PDB has all the ingredients as mentioned above. But unfortunately there are no reliable databases, system models, load flow programmes (1 or 2 available for the whole system whereas every operation and planning engineer needs one programme) and finally no coordination. I expect PDB to deny this as usual. But I know very well how PDB works. I have been working for the last five years with one of most advanced power systems in the world and did my post-graduate studies in power systems as well. Last year I met two engineers (from PDB and PGCB) and found they are interested in the development of the power sector in Bangladesh. I could not believe a power company has only one copy of professional load flow software which is the heart of any power system analysis. The status of the power system in Bangladesh can be called primitive and the first few companies in this field performed more professionally more than 100 years ago! Obviously, there will be question why I am talking so much when I do not contribute to the country (I do contribute in my own ways). Personally, I do not believe that I have to be in Bangladesh to contribute but it does not mean I would not be in Bangladesh if I have to. I worked for five years in Bangladesh (Dept. of EEE, BUET) and found lack of professionalism in general. I would request the present government and our political leaders to give highest priority to the power sector and bring it to a level which can be made the base of our economic progress.
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