State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has sought the cooperation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to modernise the gas and electricity transmission and distribution systems in the country’s south-western region. He made the call at a meeting with JICA's newly appointed Chief Representative to Bangladesh Tomohide Ichiguchi at the latter’s office at the Secretariat on Wednesday. “After construction of the Padma Bridge, a rapid development is taking place in the south-western part of the country. JICA can play a major role in modernising electricity transmission and distribution systems in the region,”he told Tomohide. During the meeting they discussed various issues related to mutual interest. Welcoming the newly appointed chief representative, Nasrul Hamid said that JICA is one of the main development partners of Bangladesh. He also requested the JICA local chief to extend cooperation to Bangladesh Power Management Institute (BPMI) to make it an international quality training institute for the development of human resources. Read: Relations with Bangladesh now deeper, more extensive: JICA  He observed that a huge investment opportunity has been created in the distribution and transmission sector. He also requested the JICA to conduct a study on local area-based load management and possible power transmission to meet the requirements.  Integrated master plan for energy and power, renewable energy, wind power, change in electricity consumption pattern, energy demand in industry, modernization of power and energy sector, land development of Maheshkhali, gas pipeline installation projects also came up for discussion. The JICA chief representative said, Bangladesh is his old work station. “JICA's will remain with Bangladesh to promote its development. JICA will continue to work for the development of BPMI,”he assured the state minister. JICA outgoing chief representative Yoho Hayakawa was also present on the occasion.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has urged people to consume gas and electricity judiciously in the wake of rising outages in Bangladesh. In a statement to media outlets, the Minister said that such situation will not continue for a longer period of time as 618 million cubic feet of gas will be added to the national grid through the drilling of 46 wells over the next three years while electricity from the second unit of Payra power plant, Rampal power plant and 1600 MW imported electricity from India will add to the national power grid.   The State Minister also explained the situation, saying that the pandemic has impacted everyone. "When everyone was trying to recover from the hit of the Covid-19, the Russia-Ukraine war has put the entire world in a deep crisis, which has not only impacted the developing countries, but also the developed world," he said. "The impact of the world has created a huge volatility in the global energy market. The international food market is also in a dismal situation. This has put us in a dangerous situation," the Minister said in his statement which he also shared on his Facebook page. Read: Electricity: Progress in pre-paid meter installation is slow despite high hope "As you know, Bangladesh has recently achieved a milestone of 52 billion in exports. It means our industrialisation has surpassed all the times of the past in the last one century due to uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity, "Before the 2008 elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had promised in her election manifesto to bring electricity to the doorsteps of all. We have implemented that vision. There is no alternative to the uninterrupted gas and electricity to improve human quality of life. We are moving towards achieving that goal. But due to the war, the rhythm suddenly dropped everywhere," he said. Even developed and economically prosperous countries like Japan are not able to provide regular electricity to more than three and a half crore people, the Minister said. "The situation is similar in another developed country, Australia. I don’t want to mention the situation in India and Pakistan. Everyone has to go for rationing to manage the crisis." The State minister said the country needs 1600-1600 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) to generate electricity "against which we can supply only 900 mmcfd gas". "We can't supply more gas as we have to give priority to agriculture and industry. Fertiliser is essential for agriculture. We also have to supply a huge gas for fertiliser production.' Read: Five Eid congregations at Baitul Mukarram About the current situation in Bangladesh, Nasdrul said that currently the daily gas production is 2300 mmcfd. "The rest of the demand is being met through imported gas. Even when the Awami League government assumed office in 2009, gas production was only 1744 mmcfd. We increased production capacity to 2,750 mmcfd. Until 2018, we had produced gas in this capacity. But unfortunately it’s true that our own gas production has started to fall due to the declining reserves in our fields." He said that the country is receiving liquefied natural gas (LNG) under long-term agreements with Qatar and Oman. "In addition, we used to import LNG from the international spot market. Before the Covid-19, we imported per unit of LNG at US$4, but now the price has crossed $41. If we import LNG at such a high price, it will create a pressure on our economy. Not only the gas price, the prices of all kinds of energy have increased. In July 2021, per barrel of diesel was $77 which now has gone up to $171." Reminding the situation before 2008 when there was no electricity for 16-18 hours a day, he said in that difficult times, "you have kept your trust in Sheikh Hasina". "Coming to power, the Awami League government has taken various short, medium and long term steps to develop the power sector." He urged all to keep trust in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to overcome the crisis. “We will all overcome this crisis together."

Japan backtracked from funding the Matarbari-2 coal-fired power plant after consulting Bangladesh, State Minister Nasrul Hamid said. "To cut its carbon footprint, the Japanese government made the decision a year ago following a discussion with the Bangladesh government," he told UNB Wednesday. The Bangladesh government had already decided to develop an LNG-based power plant instead of a coal-fired one at the site of Matarbari-2, the state minister said. READ: Matarbari coal-fired power project gets costlier The remaining part of the project area will be used for developing a solar power plant, he added. Bangladesh already cancelled 10 coal-fired power plants of more than 8000MW as part of its global climate change commitment, Nasrul said. The country is implementing the 1200MW Matarbari-1 coal-fired power plant in Maheshkhali with the Japanese government's financial support. The first unit (600 MW) of the plant is scheduled to come into operation in 2024.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has called for sharing of advanced technologies to overcome land scarcity problem in the development of renewable energy. He made the call while virtually addressing the first Asia Green Growth Partnership Ministerial Meeting on Monday. It is an urgent need of the time to equally distribute the advanced technologies for development of clean energies, he said. Also read: Year-wise roadmap made to implement renewable energy policy: Nasrul Hamid The online conference, chaired by Japan’s Minister of Economy, Commerce and Industries Horoshi Kajiyama, was also addressed by Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Commerce and Technology Minister of the United Arab Emirate Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif and Executive Director of International Energy Agency Dr. Fatih Birol. If there is a stronger cooperation among the nations, Nasrul said, the use of clean energy will be increased fast. He informed the meeting that Bangladesh has taken up a year-wise plan to implement various renewable energy-related projects. Nasrul said Bangladesh has set up 6 million solar home systems in the country’s remote areas through which about 20 million people are getting benefit of electricity. Also read: Uninterrupted affordable energy main challenge in future: Nasrul Hamid Anet metering system was introduced to popularize the rooftop solar systems while solar-run pumps are being used for irrigation purposes. He mentioned Bangladesh is implementing 5 wind power projects to generate 245 MW power while 50MW electricity will come from a waste-to-energy power plant project. Initiatives have been taken to import hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan while the power system master plan is being updated to promote renewable energy.