A random power cut has returned to disrupt life and businesses against the backdrop of 50 per cent over capacity in power production that is believed to have cost Bangladesh about Tk 26,000 crore in idle plants in the financial year 2021-22.

Talking to FPon Wednesday, Power Development Board officials said that the frequent power cut would continue in the coming days until the supply of gas, which accounted for almost 60 per cent of power generation, was improved.

Experts said that such an unwanted situation was all but inevitable as the power generation policy of the present government was not sustainable and economically viable.

Too much dependence on the import of liquefied natural gas suspending the exploration domestic of gas has misfired, said former Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology chemical engineering professor Ijaz Hossain.

State minister for power, energy, and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid in a statement on Tuesday said that the supply of gas to the power plants dropped to 900mmcf against the demand of around 1,600mmcf.

The price of liquefied natural gas, which has been imported since 2018 to feed the power plants, rose to $41 per unit from the previous $4, he said.

He also said that huge pressure on the economy would be created if the LNG was imported at the present price hiked substantially because of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

The government has stopped purchasing LNG from the spot market since June 21, said the PDB officials.

PDB calculated that the country faced about 1,400 megawatts shortage in production compared with demand on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, against the demand of 12,948 megawatts the country’s power plants could produce 11,548 megawatts. At least 24 power plants among 152 in operation faced gas shortage, according to PDB.

The officials of the power development board hoped that the situation would improve slightly during the upcoming holidays when industries and manufacturing units would remain closed for a few days.

They, however, feared that the power cut would return after the holidays and the shortfall would rise over 2,000 megawatts.

Ijaz Hossain noted that the country could have averted the present situation had the government maintained the production of gas achieved at over 2700mmcf in 2016.

The production of gas dropped since 2018, he lamented.

The power cut has hampered life since many households are accustomed to electrical home appliances like air coolers, washing machines and microwave ovens.

Abdul Matlub Ahmed, a former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said that the business activities were also being disrupted amid frequent power cuts.

To the industry and manufacturing sector power cut is a terror, he said, adding that it would drop productivity and increase production costs.

He added that inflationary pressure at the domestic level and loss of competitiveness in the international market would be the other impacts of power supply shortage.

FBBCI has already convinced the government to suspend its decision of closing markets, shopping malls and kitchen markets after 8:00pm till Eid-ul-Azha in the interest of businesses and the economy.

The government had given the order to save electricity and energy to deal with the continuous rise in global energy prices.

On Wednesday, prime minister Sheikh Hasina once again urged the country’s people to be rational in the use of electricity.

Quoting the prime minister, the state-owned news agency BSS reported that the government was bound to carry out the power cut and limit electricity production as fuel prices were continuously increasing globally due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

In a webinar on Wednesday, FBCCI president Md. Jashim Uddin called for power rationing to keep the production uninterrupted.

He also called for a short, medium and long-term roadmap to ensure energy security at the third meeting of the standing committee on Power, Energy and Utilities.

Consumer association of Bangladesh senior vice-president and energy adviser Shamsul Alam observed that the country’s energy security was at stake due to the government policy of importing gas for benefitting certain quarters.

He criticised the government for extension of the tenure of costly fuel oil-fired rental plants and increasing the production capacity to around 2,5000 megawatts.

For the unutilised production capacity, the government paid over Tk 13,000 crore to operators of 35 private power plants in the financial year 2020-21, said a report released by the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt in March 2022.

Of the amount, 12 companies took more than Tk 8,730 crore in capacity charges, accounting for more than 66 per cent of the total money paid in the financial year by the government to the idle private power plants. The amount of capacity payment to idle power plants was expected to go double in FY22.