Draft energy plan copying AL’s playbook: CPD

The interim government has followed the wrong practices of the ousted Awami League government in preparing the master plan for the power and energy sector, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Preparing the masterplan should have had the involvement of local energy experts following research-based methods on decision-making, and it should have been done through an open and democratic process.

“But nothing happened -- it has become another bureaucracy-driven plan which doesn’t match the energy sector goals mentioned in other policy papers,” said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at CPD, at a press briefing titled Quick Reaction on Interim Government’s Energy and Power Sector Master Plan (2026-50).

On January 7, Fouzul Kabir Khan, the adviser to the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources, submitted the draft plan to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. The ministry is yet to unveil the draft, saying it may be disclosed after Yunus’s signing.

The newly proposed draft masterplan has failed to address, accommodate and answer the criticisms, concerns and questions raised in the previous Integrated Master Plan of 2023, said Helen Mashiyat Preoty, senior research associate at CPD, while presenting the keynote paper.

The emergence of domestic coal, intensified LNG needs and reluctance towards renewable energy expansion raise serious concerns.

“In no way should the existing version of the draft masterplan be approved without major revision. The draft version is no better than the previous one, and in some cases, it might prove to be more degrading,” she added.

The CPD said the draft plan estimated the future power demand based solely on the GDP growth rate and set it at 59,351 megawatts for 2050.

At present, local and imported natural gas dominates the fuel mix with a 45 percent share; in 2050, it will be brought down to 29 percent in 2050, while generation from coal would be doubled by then, the CPD said, quoting the draft plan.

Though the plan will reduce electricity generation from fuel oil from 17 percent to 1 percent, it said another nuclear plant would be built in Chattogram with a capacity of 2,400 MW.

Solar will be the dominating source of electricity in 2050 with a capacity of 32,100 MW. Wind will contribute by 9,600 MW.

“But the new plan has somewhat alignment with the major sectoral policy and planning documents in all the wrong ways in terms of overestimated power demand projection, renewable energy target and definition of renewable energy,” the CPD said.

Establishing renewable energy sources by greenwashing LNG and coal is not actually prioritising the traditional renewable sources and providing undue focus on LNG import. This echoes the same pattern and priorities observed in the previous masterplan, the CPD said.

The new masterplan ignored the regional power grid, especially the renewable energy-based power trade with the neighbouring countries and the upgrading of the current grid systems.

The CPD recommended that the masterplan must shift its focus from coal and LNG to renewable energy and drop all discussion on false solutions in the name of advanced technology or future energy sources.

The faulty and non-participatory master plan was prepared in haste just a month before the power transfer to a political government for a vested interest group, Moazzem said.

“It will undermine the long-term carbon emissions process, will increase the use of fossil fuel and will hinder the expansion of renewable energy,” he said, while demanding postponement of the adoption of the master plan.