The power and energy sector is set to fetch a meager growth of 2.71 per cent in allocation to Tk 274.84 billion for FY’22 compared to around 12 per cent growth in the total allocation of the national budget.
The current FY ‘21 budget allocation of Tk 267.58 billion was 4.60 per cent lower than the previous FY ‘20s budget allocation of Tk. 280.51 billion.
Proposing the next fiscal year’s notational budget, the finance minister projected on Thursday that the country’s overall electricity generation capacity will rise to 57, 972 megawatt (MW) within next a few years if all the power plants under the government move to build and go online.
Currently, the country’s total electricity generation capacity stands at 25,227MW as of May 2021.
The additional 32,745MW capacity electricity will be added with the present capacity as 38 power plants with a capacity of 14,115MW are under construction, and contracts have been signed for the construction of another 20 power plants with a capacity of 2,961MW, the finance minister projected.
Besides, six power plants with a capacity of 650MW are in the process of tender, and the construction of 33 power plants with a capacity of 15,019MW has been approved.
The overall electricity generation increased five-fold over the past 12 years since 2009, he said.
Due to the strict measures taken by the government, the system loss in electricity has reduced from 14.33 per cent to 8.73 per cent, he added.
Around 99 per cent of the total population of the country has been brought under the electricity coverage.
The government has a plan to increase the number of transmission lines to 28,000 km and the number of distribution lines to 660,000 km by 2030.
Natural gas production from local fields, however, increased by 44 per cent over the past 12 years to 2525 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) as of May 2021 from 1,744 mmcfd in 2009.
To meet the mounting natural gas demand the government has started importing LNG (liquefied natural gas) in 2018.
Two floating LNG terminals with a total capacity of 1,000 mmcfd are already operational and construction plan of one 1,000 mmcfd capacity LNG based LNG terminal has already been initiated.
The fuel storage capacity, however, increased by only 32.27 per cent to 13.20 million tonnes as of May 2021 from 894,000 tonnes in 2009.
Azizjst@yahoo.com