Bangladesh's State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resource Nasrul Hamid has said that each of the companies of the Petrobangla will be given target to drill wells in the gas fields for hydrocarbon exploration and if they fail, the officials concerned will be removed from  their posts. “Nobody will be speared and no persuasion will be accepted against any failure”, he told a seminar titled: “Gas Demand-Supply Scenario; Scope of Seismic Survey and Enhancement of Drilling Activities to Expedite Hydrocarbon Production” organised by Petrobangla at its auditorium in the city on Thursday (February 15, 2024). Expressing frustration over the activities of the Petrobangla, he said that there is huge deficiency in the organisation and its subordinate bodies to work as a team. “They don’t work in a coordinated manner. As a result, sometimes gas is found in a well, but processing plant remains unprepared  to supply the gas to the national grid,” he said. Read: Dhaka’s air quality still 'unhealthy', 2nd most polluted in the world this morning  “Sometimes it takes 4 years to get gas supply from a well to the national grid,” he added. He said Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and other entities in power sector have been successful in achieving the goal of 100 percent electricity access as they worked as a team. The seminar, with Petrobangla chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker in the chair, was also addressed by Energy Secretary Md Nurul Alam. Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company’s Managing Director Anwarul Islam and Petrobangla’s general manager Meherul Hasan made presentation on the topic of the seminar. Nasrul Hamid said the Petrobangla planned to drill 48 wells to produce 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) while the country’s demand will go up by 2000 mmcfd. Read: New executive committee of BSFA pays homage to Bangabandhu  “We’re all looking at Petrobangla to see effective results of its plan…, there is huge prospects in the gas sector,” he added. He said the country has many inefficient captive power plants which efficiency is 20 percent when some new power plants installed with 62 percent efficiency. “If we can divert gas to those efficient new power plants, power production cost will come down by 70 percent,” he noted. In the presentation the Petrobangla officials showed that it has planned to drill 100 wells across the country from which 1500 mmcfd gas will be produced by 2027 when gas demand will go up to 6000 mmcfd. Read more: Nasrul Hamid seeks ADB's help to create regional power market

The government of Bangladesh is caught up in a dilemma in choosing the right option to reduce the gap between the cost of power production and revenues generated from sales. “Top policymakers are divided over whether the government should go for increasing the power tariff further or issuing more bonds through the banking system,” said a top official at the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). He said if the government wants to raise the power tariff, either it has to do it before Ramadan or after Ramadan - these are the questions almost every day that are being discussed at the policy level. They are also analysing the impacts of floating more bonds to reduce the burden of soaring losses on the part of BPDB, he added. Read: Retail power tariff hiked 5% to Tk0.19 per unit for lifeline consumers, Tk0.36 on average for others According to official sources, currently, the production of each unit of electricity costs about Tk 12 while it sells at a rate of about Tk 6.7. It means the government has to bear the brunt of Tk 5.3 per unit, a top BPDB official told UNB.      The BPDB’s Annual Report 2022-23 shows, the BPDB, as a single buyer, generated 87,024 million kilowatt hours of electricity in 2022-23 fiscal at a total cost of TK 98,646.42 crore. Its per unit production cost was at Tk 11.33 while it was selling electricity at Tk 6.7 per unit incurring a loss of about Tk 4.63 per unit. The bulk tariff was last raised by 8.06 percent to Tk 6.70 from Tk 6.20 per unit on January 31 with effect from February 2023.  Read more: Over 10,000MW power in 29 projects in the pipeline, despite yawning overcapacity Against this, its revenues were Tk 50,858.25 crore, incurring a loss of Tk 47,788.17 crore, showed the BPDB Annual Report. With this huge loss, the government has been in great trouble as it has to purchase electricity worth Tk 82,778.25 from private sector power producers while it generates electricity worth Tk 13,306.62 crore from its own generation plants. The annual report also shows that the BPDB’s average per unit production cost from its own plants is Tk 7.63, while it is Tk 14.62 at the independent power producers or IPPs (private sector), at rental plants Tk 12.53, at public plants Tk 6.85 and imported power from India at Tk 8.77. The government purchases electricity from the private sector and India in dollars. Read more: Power generation capacity increased by almost 20% to cross 30,000MW in 2023 According to official sources, the government's cumulative outstanding bills have now jumped to about $5 billion, of which the backlog amount in the power sector is about $4 billion (about Tk 43,093 crore), and the remaining $1 billion is in the energy sector. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid also admitted the severity of the crisis. “Actually the crisis is not of local currency. Somehow we can manage it. But the main crisis is the dollar. We’re not getting dollars from Bangladesh Bank as per our needs,” he recently told UNB. He noted that the power and energy sectors need at least $1 billion a month to meet payment obligations. Read: Govt to raise retail power tariff this month In such a situation, the government recently introduced a number of bonds through Bangladesh Bank to facilitate the BPDB to clear some dues. “Initially, we have floated bonds worth Tk 5000 crore and it may go up to Tk 12,000 crore,” said a BPDB official on condition of anonymity, adding that it will not be enough to cover the losses, although the government is providing subsidies on a regular basis.     “That’s why the government will have to go for raising power tariff further or introducing more bonds,” he said adding, if more bonds are floated, it may squeeze the private sector’s credit from the banking sector.  But a final decision on what they would do still remains pending. Read more: Power, energy sectors are saddled with $5 billion outstanding payment amid dollar crisis: Sources

The country’s overall power generation, combining grid capacity and off-grid (mainly captive) power, increased by about 5000MW in 2023 to reach a new benchmark of 30,700MW, although with demand failing to keep up, this is expected to lead to higher capacity payments for the government. This is disclosed in available data from the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) and Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda). The BPDB data shows that of the 5000MW new power generation, some 3,343MW was added to the national grid by the import electricity from India and production from newly set up local power plants while about 1400MW came from off-grid captive and off-grid solar power. Power, energy sectors are saddled with $5 billion outstanding payment amid dollar crisis: Sources It also shows that the country’s installed grid-connected power generation capacity has reached to 25,951 MW on December 30 in 2023 from 22,608 MW in 2022 showing a capacity enhancement of 3343 MW. Beyond the national grid, as per BERC data, the captive power generation has increased by 1379MW to reach 4760 MW in 2023 from 3,381MW in 2022. The captive power plants were mainly set up by industries for their own consumption to get uninterrupted power supply as the grid power does not guarantee uninterrupted supply. Govt approves import of 40 MW power from Nepal Sources in the power sector said that despite more than 40 percent surplus power generation in the country, still many industries prefer to use their captive power for uninterrupted supply. A huge number of applications remain pending with the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to set up more captive plants. The power generation from non-conventional, or renewable sources also witnessed an increase in 2023. The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) statistics show that the solar power generation capacity reached 1200MW in 2023 from 700MW in 2022. Of the 1200 MW, the off grid is 366.76 MW while ongrid is 601.02 MW. However, the country’s hydroelectric capacity of 230 MW is included in the Sreda statistics. Together the new off-grid captive power and grid-connected power has pushed up the country’s total power generation capacity to 30,711 MW in 2023 from about 25,700 MW at the end of 2022. BPDB officials said that the import of 1600 MW from the Adani Group’s plant for Bangladesh in Godda, Jharkhand, has played a major role in increasing the power generation capacity of the country. Apart from the import, the commercial operations of a number of base-load power plants played a significant role in raising power generation capacity. Read more: Power, energy sectors are saddled with $5 billion outstanding payment amid dollar crisis: Sources These new power plants include 600 MW second unit of Rampal Power Plant, and 1200 MW Banshkhali power plant of S Alam Group. There is also a 200 MW Solar power plant in Khulna by Orion Group. Although this capacity enhancement in power generation is a pleasing development on the face of it, especially given the country’s long history of struggle with power shortages, BPDB officials are also quick to point out that the growing surplus capacity would also lead to a rise in capacity payments, whereby IPPs get paid even for the electricity the government doesn’t need from them. They said that the new power plants being added to the grid were set up by the IPPs, or independent power producers (the private sector firms investing in the power sector, by building and often operating the plants), and the BPDB has an obligation to purchase power from them - to not let their investment go to waste or end in loss. Having them exit the power sector due to losses would be a bigger blow to BPDB's long-term vision. The increasing burden of capacity payments may pinch the government, as well as the consumer, harder if the dollar crisis prevailing in the country persists. According to the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a Dhaka-based think tank, capacity payments to private, rental, and quick rental power plants have increased from Tk 5,376 crores in FY2017 to as high as an estimated Tk 28,000 crores in FY 2023. In 2024, surplus electricity generation capacity is projected to rise to 50 percent from the existing 40 percent, as the country’s peak hour demand is about 16,000 MW, according to a top BPDB official. It would mean even at peak demand, half the plants would be surplus to requirements, and thus lie idle. Read more: AL Pledges to Expand Modern Urban Facilities to Every Village in Smart Bangladesh

The country’s power generation increased further, setting a new record on Tuesday with the production reaching 15,626 MW at 9 pm on night. According to a statement of the Power Division, the country set the new record surpassing the previous production of 15,604 MW at 9 pm on Monday. Officials at the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), said the resting of operation of the diesel-fired and gas fired more power plants attributed to this new record. They also said import of power from the Adani Power-built thermal power plant for Bangladesh also played a role in this regard. The country has started importing about 759 MW from Indian Adani Group’s Godda power plant in Jharkhand. Read more: Power generation rises to 15,304 MW setting new record They said the cost of the imported power from Adani Group’s power plant at Godda in the Indian state of Jharkhand has not been settled yet, but officials said the tariff of electricity from Adani Group might be above Tk 14 per unit while average production cost is below Tk 7. Now Bangladesh’s installed grid power generation capacity is over 25,000 MW.  

Though commercial operation of Adani Power’s Godda Jharkhand plant started on April 7 to import about 800 MW of electricity by Bangladesh, the tariff dispute has not been settled yet. Initially, Adani started its power export to Bangladesh on March 9 on a test basis.   According to official sources, state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) approved a commercial operation date (COD) following its inspection by a 3-member technical team, headed by a superintendent engineer (energy audit). “The technical team went to India in the third week of March and returned home in the first week of April spending about 10 days in Apani’s Godda power plant,” a source told UNB on condition of anonymity as the issue is highly sensitive. “But the issue of the tariff was not settled. After objection from the Bangladesh side, the Adani Power offered to lower the coal price, still it is not complying with Bangladesh’s stand,” he said. He mentioned that Adani uses GAR of ICI-5000 coal which is low quality coal, but wants to quote the price GAR of ICI -6500. “For instance the price of an ICI-6500 is $179.84, while the price of ICI-5000 is $95.50. In this case, Adani is seeking to quote the coal price at $179.84 which is not acceptable to Bangladesh,” he added.     He also mentioned that following the recent discussion between Adani and BPDB in Bangladesh, Adani has agreed to lower the price and wanted to keep it between the tariffs of Payra power plant and Rampal power plants. “But they don’t stick to a certain formula of coal pricing which is problematic for Bangladesh as every month BPDB will have to negotiate with Adani on the tariff issue which is not desirable for Bangladesh”, said the senior official of the BPDB. Earlier, a high level team of Adani Group came to Dhaka on February 23 and discussed resolving the issues on "coal pricing mechanism of the power purchase agreement (PPA)”. Both the sides heard each other and they presented their points in favour of their respective sides on the issue. Adani's representative informed them that they would communicate BPDB's stance on the coal pricing mechanism of the PPA to their top management and they will sit in more follow-up meetings. Read more: Adani Group starts discussion with Bangladesh to resolve issues on coal pricing The visited Dhaka as the Bangladesh government sought a revision to the power purchase agreement (PPA) it signed with Adani Power Ltd for importing electricity over a 25 years of period from its thermal power plant in Jharkhand, India. It seems the price of coal to be purchased as fuel for the project has emerged as the prime bone of contention. The BPDB sent a letter to the Adani Group following a request it received in relation to opening LCs (in India) to import the coal that will be used as fuel for the 1,600 MW plant in Jharkhand,” a highly-placed official of BPDB told UNB. Since practically all the power generated by the plant located in the Godda district of Jharkhand state will be exported to Bangladesh, Adani Power requires a demand note from BPDB that it can present to Indian authorities before opening LCs against the coal import. The cost incurred to import the coal, including transport from port to plant, will ultimately be borne by Bangladesh, with the price factored into the PPA's tariff structure. At that time when a huge volatility was prevailing on the global market with soaring fuel price, Adani Power recently sent a request for BPDB to issue the demand note, where the coal price is quoted at $400 per metric ton (MT) - far above what BPDB officials believe it should be given the present state of the international market. “In our view, the coal price they have quoted ($400/MT) is excessive - it should be less than $250/MT, which is what we are paying for the imported coal at our other thermal power plants," the official said. The BPDB official referred to the coal procurement of Rampal Power Plant where the supplier Bashundhara Group won the contract to supply coal at $232.33 per ton to reach the product to the jetty. However, later the coal price declined substantially.   The same sources also said Bangladesh’s stance on the issue was communicated to Adani Power officials during the visit of a delegation led by State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid to the site of the power plant that took place in the first week of January.  

The financial loss of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is likely to cross Tk 54,000 crore in the current fiscal after the hike in the price of gas increased their input cost. In 2021-22 its losses were Tk 29,915 crore. “We have to count Tk 10,000 crore extra cost to pay the gas bills following the new gas price enhancement,” a top official of the BPDB told UNB. He said the new cost of gas purchase was already communicated to the Power Division which had already raised the issue at a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking further instruction. The government on January 18 raised the retail gas prices for public, private and captive power plants and also for industries and commercial users with effect from February 1. Also Read: Saudi firm, BPDB sign deal to set up 1000MW solar power plant in Bangladesh As per the new government announcement, the gas prices have been increased by almost three times for public and private power plants while almost double for captive power plants and industries, and significantly hiked for commercial users. However, prices for household consumers, CNG-run for motor vehicles and tea estates were kept unchanged.  The Energy and Mineral Resources Division set the prices through a gazette notification issued on Wednesday applying the new amendment to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Act, which empowered the government to set all kinds of energy prices bypassing the regulator’s jurisdictions at any time. As per the gazette notification, the public and private power plants including the IPP and rental power plants will pay gas price at Tk 14 per unit (each cubic metre) instead of previous price of Tk 5.02. The rise is 179 percent. Read More: The Tk 700 crore per month hole in the deal with Adani Power The captive power plants, small power plants and commercial power plants will pay Tk 30 per unit instead of the previous price of Tk 16 which is an 88 percent rise. It means after the current enhancement in gas price, the loss in the space of one fiscal will go up by over Tk 24,000 crore, said the sources at the BPDB - an almost 80 percent jump. According to BPDB’s own latest estimates, the financial loss was supposed to cross Tk 48,000 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal from Tk 29,915 crore in the fiscal year 2021-22. But after the hike in bulk power tariff, the loss was calculated to come down by about Tk 4000 to Tk 44,000 crore. “But now the loss will go up by Tk 10,000 crore due to the gas price hike effective from February 1,” said the official referring to their latest calculation.     Read More: Saudi firm, BPDB sign deal to set up 1000MW solar power plant in Bangladesh The directorate of finance of BPDB prepared this calculation on the basis of an audited report, official sources said. On November 21, the bulk power tariff was raised by about 19.92 percent – to Tk 6.20 per kilowatt hour (each unit) from the previous Tk 5.17 – with effect from December 2022. As per the calculation, the loss has shot up excessively mainly for the two reasons — primary fuel price escalation and devaluation of the local currency. "Among the two, the devaluation of local currency emerged as the major reason," a top official of the BPDB told UNB. Read More: BPDB’s financial loss set to increase by over two-thirds to Tk 48,000cr He informed that the BPDB was going to incur a loss of about Tk 10,000 crore solely due to the high rate of dollar. Earlier, the US dollar exchange rate was calculated at Tk 85 which is now at Tk 107 which means the cost increased by Tk 22 per dollar. The BPDB has to pay about $9 billion annually to buy electricity from private sector plants, to pay capacity charges and also to import other materials from abroad for its own purposes.   The BPDB has a power purchase agreement with a huge number of private power generation companies to buy their electricity. Available statistics reveal, currently, the country’s installed power generation capacity is over 25,500 MW and more than 50 percent of electricity is generated by the private sector through independent power producers, rental and quick rental power plants. Read More: BPDB submits retail power tariff adjustment proposal seeking a 19.44 percent hike Import of electricity from India is also counted as private sector generation. The private sector operators mainly use furnace oil, natural gas and diesel. Of these, 4,700 MW is generated by using furnace oil.

The financial loss of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is likely to increase by Tk 18,094 crore in one year. According to BPDB’s own latest estimates, the financial loss will cross Tk 48,000 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal from Tk 29,915 crore in the fiscal year 2021-22, an increase of almost 67%. The directorate of Finance of BPDB prepared this calculation on the basis of an audited report, official sources said. A top official of the finance department of the BPDB said that the recent hike in bulk power tariff may reduce the estimated loss by only Tk 5,000 crore. Read more: Raising retail power tariff: 3 more distribution companies submit proposals “We get some extra revenue only for 7 months as the new bulk tariff which increased by 19.92 percent, will be effective from December this year,” he added. Each fiscal runs from July 1 to June 30 PDB is currently charging Tk 5.21 per unit of electricity generation, which was raised by Tk 1.03 per unit. As per the calculation, the financial loss has shot up excessively mainly for the two reasons—primary fuel price escalation and devaluation of the local currency. “Among the two—the devaluation of local currency emerged as the major reason,” a top official of the BPDB told UNB. He informed that the BPDB is going to incur a loss of about Tk 10,000 crore solely due to the high rate of US dollar. “We’ve to now calculate the exchange rate of US dollar at Tk 107 both in paying the private power plant operators and also opening a letter of credit (LC) with the bank in importing equipment,” said the source, requesting anonymity as the issue is highly sensitive. Not long ago, the BPDB calculated the US dollar exchange rate at Tk 85. Now Tk 107 exchange rate means Tk 22 extra in paying each dollar, said the official. The BPDB has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a huge number of private power generation companies to buy their electricity. Read more: BPDB submits retail power tariff adjustment proposal seeking a 19.44 percent hike Available statistics reveal, currently, the country’s power generation capacity is over 25,500 MW and more than 50 percent of electricity is generated by the private sector through independent power producers (IPP), rental and quick rental power plants. Import of electricity from India is also counted as private sector generation. The private sector operators mainly use furnace oil, natural gas and diesel. Of these, 4,700 MW is generated by using furnace oil. According to Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda), of the total 25,585 MW of generation capacity comprising both public and private sector plants, currently 1768 MW (6.91 %) is coal-based, 11330 MW (44.28 %) gas-based, 6238 MW (24.38 %) furnace oil-based, 1341 MW (5.24 %) diesel-based, Imported 1160 MW (4.53 %), renewable 948.12 MW (3.71 %) and captive is 2800 MW (10.94 %).   BPDB officials said the organisation had to spend Tk 31,245 crore in 2021-22 for import of 4.8 million metric tons (MT) of liquid fuel, mainly furnace oil, for its own plants and also for the private plant operators as the primary fuel is a “pass-through item” in the PPA with private plants. In the current fiscal year, the BPDB estimated to import 3.6 MT of furnace oil, down by 1.2 million MT, as the operation of diesel-based power plants has already been suspended by the government due to excessively higher prices. To import the lower quantity of furnace oil, the government has to spend Tk 28,441 crore in the current fiscal of 2022-23, said the BPDB official.   Though the quantity of furnace oil is going to decrease substantially by 1.2 million MT, the cost is not substantially decreased as the BPDB will have to import the liquid fuel at much higher price than that in the previous year. The cost per litre of furnace oil was valued at Tk 65 in the previous fiscal year. The price has gone up to Tk 85 per litre in the current year, said another BPDB official involved in the price valuation job. “The higher cost of furnace oil by Tk 20 will ultimately create an additional burden of about Tk 2,500 crore,” he said, adding that the higher price of coal in local power generation and also import of power will have an impact in escalating the BPDB overall cost.

Bulk power tariff has been raised by about 19.92 percent – to Tk 6.20 per kilowatt hour (each unit) from the previous Tk 5.17 – with effect from December 2022. Chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Md Abdul Jalil announced the decision today to raise the power tariff, disposing of the review appeal of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to raise bulk power tariff. However, the new power tariff will not be effective for retail consumers. It will be effective only for power distribution companies and some other bulk consumers. BPDB filed the review appeal to BERC on November 14 – within 30 working days after its proposal was rejected by the regulator on October 13. Before submitting the proposal, BPDB received a nod from the government’s highest policy level, the media release from BERC said. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid also approved the review appeal on bulk power tariff. BERC Chairman Abdul Jalil said the new bulk tariff was set considering Tk 17,000 crore subsidy to be received from the government. Read more: BPDB submits review appeal to raise bulk power tariff Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Vice President ASM Shamsul Alam termed BERC’s decision, without any public hearing, as an “arbitrary act” and “violation of the BERC Act”. “When people are already fed up with load shedding and sharp price hike of essentials, this decision from BERC will be a big blow for the public,” he told UNB. Power Division officials said that the government has been under tremendous pressure to raise power tariff – in order to reduce the subsidy in power sector – as per condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which promised to provide $4.5 billion in loan to Bangladesh as part of crisis management support. Earlier when delivering a decision by rejecting the BPDB proposal on October 13, BERC chairman Abdul Jalil said that some of the private companies, which purchase electricity from BPDB have not submitted their data of transactions. “There was data ambiguity. That’s why we did not analyse the impact of any rise in bulk tariff on the consumers considering socio-economic condition,” he had told reporters. But this time, he said, BPDB submitted all required data. “As there is no price effect on the retail consumers, we didn’t have to analyse the socio-economic concision”, he said.  The last public hearing on a BPDB proposal to raise bulk power tariff was held on May 18. Read more: BPDB to incur over Tk 30,000 cr loss if bulk power tariff not raised BPDB placed a proposal to raise bulk power tariff by 65.57 percent at the public hearing while a technical evaluation committee of BERC recommended a 57.83 percent hike. BPDB in its latest review appeal proposal mentioned that its actual generation cost of supply is Tk 8.96 per unit, instead of previous calculated tariff of Tk 8.16 per unit. Placing the proposal, BPDB officials had said the organisation will require Tk 74,189 crore in revenue to generate 88,993 million kilowatt hours (units) of electricity to supply to the power distribution companies. Read more: BERC’s TEC commends a 57.83pc hike in bulk power tariff rejecting BPDB’s 65.57pc Meanwhile, distribution companies are now preparing to submit their respective proposals to raise retail power tariff too, official sources said. Nasrul Hamid also said that the distribution entities are preparing their proposals to submit to the energy regulator, seeking a substantial hike in the electricity tariff at retail level. “Power distribution companies are now working to prepare their proposals…They are calculating the possible impact of any hike in the bulk power tariff,” he told UNB.

After two weeks of remaining out of order, the 210 MW capacity unit-5 of Ghorashal Power Station has resumed operation. “Unit-5 of Ghorashal Power Station is in operation since yesterday and is now generating 170 MW electricity, against its installed capacity of 210 MW,” Shamim Hasan, public relations director of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), told UNB. Ghorashal Power Station’s unit-5 went off along with other units following the National Power Grid failure on October 4, 2022. Read: Power supply in Dhaka: Until Ghorashal working in full capacity, situation won’t improve Except unit-5, almost all other units of the power station resumed operation the same day. As a result, Dhaka city and adjoining areas were getting relatively less power supply from Ghorashal. The power station plays a major role in electricity supplied to Dhaka. Due to a major technical fault, officials failed to resume power generation from unit-5 of Ghorashal. After repair, BPDB engineers managed to resume the unit’s operation at the plant yesterday (October 19, 2022). Read: PGCB names 2 suspended officials for power grid failure Power generation resumption from unit-5 will help improve the electricity supply situation in Dhaka and surrounding areas, said another BPDB official. Dhaka city and adjoining areas are still experiencing frequent load shedding due to a huge gap between power supply and demand. BPDB data shows the country’s power generation varies between 11,000 MW and 12,000 MW, following the national power grid failure on October 4, 2022 – against a demand for about 14,000 MW. Read Theft in power sector behind grid failure: Fakhrul

Engineer Md Mahbubur Rahman has been reappointed Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) on a contract basis for one year. He took over the charge after his reappointment with effect from September 1, said a BPDB release. Mahbubur Rahman was born in Shariatpur district on  September 1, 1963. He obtained B.Sc. Engineering (Civil) degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 1986. Also read: Chinese-Bangladeshi consortium, BPDB to sign deal for Mongla wind power plant tomorrow He did his M.Sc. Engineering (Hydro-Power) degree from the Norwegian University of Engineering & Technology, Norway in 1995 with a full scholarship from the Norwegian government. He later obtained an MBA degree from Bangladesh. Besides, he also completed various professional courses from Oxford University of the United Kingdom, Kochi University of Japan and Melbourne Institute of Technology of Australia. Mahbubur Rahman started his career with the BPDB in 1986 as an Assistant Engineer in the organisation’s Siddhirganj Power Station. Also read: Steps to be taken to normalize power supply to flood-hit areas as soon as situation improves: BPDB Later he served as Sub-Divisional Engineer and Executive Engineer at Siddhirganj 210 MW Thermal Power Station construction project, as Director IPP Cell-1, Director IPP Cell-3, Chief Engineer (Private Generation), Member (Distribution) and Member (Company Affairs) of the BPDB.