“You have to take prompt initiative so that rural consumers can increase their consumption to 1000 kWh,” he said while addressing the annual conference of BREB general managers at its headquarters in the city on Saturday.
The state minister said as fast as the electricity consumption rises, so fast the overall development will accelerate.
His call came against the backdrop of surplus electricity as the country’s power production capacity is now 22,000 MW against the average demand of 12,000 MW.
The demand further drops to 6,000 MW in winter and a huge amount of electricity remains idle for lack of demand.
For this, the government has to incur huge financial losses in paying private power producers from which it purchases electricity at higher tariff than its selling rate.
The conference was also addressed by BREB Chairman Moin Uddin and Power Cell Director General Mohammad Hossain.
Nasrul Hamid said the Power Division has declared the ‘Mujib Borsho’ as the ‘Service Year’ to improve services in the power sector.
He said as part of the ‘Mujib Borsho’ programmes, the government has set a target to ensure cent percent electrification in the grid area by June this year and in off-grid area by December next.
The state minister said people now want quality electricity with improved services. “They don’t want to see any forced shutdown or tripping in the electricity supply,” he added.