Load shedding to ease next week

Power outages will not cease immediately but will ease considerably from next week, said Energy Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood yesterday.

At present, load shedding stands at 1,200 to 1,500 megawatts, which will drop to 800 to 900MW next week, he said at the ‘Fourth Bangladesh-China Renewable Energy Forum’ organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

“A complete halt, however, is not possible at this moment,” he said, citing mounting financial strain as a key constraint.

Outstanding dues owed to power-importing entities stand at Tk 56,000 crore, he said.

Compounding the fiscal burden, the ongoing Middle East crisis has already cost the country an additional $2 billion in energy expenditure, forcing the government to manage its resources with extreme caution.

Reflecting on the structural woes inherited by his ministry, he said: “Every time I have taken charge of this ministry, I have had to start from a deficit -- in 2001 and again now in 2026. Unnecessary projects were executed, whose financial liabilities we are now bearing.”

He noted a stark mismatch between installed capacity and actual demand: while national electricity demand stands at 18,000MW, installed generation capacity was expanded to 30,000MW in previous years.

Despite the surplus capacity, raw material shortages have left many plants idle, yet the government continues to pay for their upkeep, he said, citing the Rupsha power plant in Khulna as a case in point.

The plant has been dormant for three years after a plan to supply it with Bhola gas failed to materialise.

Mahmood identified renewable energy, particularly solar, as the most viable exit from the current crisis.

The government has set a target of generating 10,000MW of solar power within five years.

“Prime Minister Tarique Rahman wants work to begin today, if possible,” he said, adding that land scarcity remains the chief obstacle to large-scale solar deployment.

To address this, the government has decided to lease state-owned khas land to the private sector for solar plant construction, alongside offering tax incentives to solar energy businesses.

The PM has already directed the preparation of a ‘khas’ land inventory through an inter-ministerial meeting convened for this purpose, Mahmood said.

Distancing the current administration from coercive energy policies of the past, he criticised the previous government’s mandatory rooftop solar panel directive.

“The previous fascist government forced solar panels onto every multi-storey building by diktat. Panels were installed, but electricity never came from them. We want to bring people to solar energy through encouragement, not compulsion.”

Mahmood also pledged that solar energy proposals rejected during the interim government’s tenure would be revisited and re-evaluated.

He went on to urge the private sector to join the government in making Bangladesh a success story in renewable energy through public-private partnerships.