Energy & Power

Column
Reverse Swing

Salvaging the Sunken Boat
Farid Hossain

In a special supplement article marking the first anniversary of the caretaker government the power secretary has detailed the gains in the power sector. There is even a special mention of Sept. 17 when, it is said, the country's power generation was the highest ever at 4130 MW.

That generation, a rare feat in Bangladesh, could not be sustained. That was not possible given the reality in the power sector. However, the year 2007 witnessed an increase in the generation and a decline, slight though, in the load shedding, a common phenomenon in Bangladesh.

The average peak generation, according to Power Secretary Dr. Fouzul Kabir Khan, was 3310 MW in 2007, up from 3165 MW in 2006. The load shedding averaged at 548 MW in 2007, down from 607 MW the previous year.

It is difficult to paint a rosy picture about the country's power sector that has long been plagued with corruption and inefficiency. A decreasing generation, faulty distribution lines, power pilferage leading to huge system loss, a mostly inefficient but politicized administration and widespread corruption are what the BNP-led coalition government left for Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, who was called to take over the caretaker administration on Jan. 11 at a very critical juncture of the nation.

The boat was about to sink. There was chaos almost every where in the society. The power sector was no exception. Load shedding was order of the day. That was expected. The past government did little to increase the generation, but it did plenty to siphon off illegal money through thousands of electricity planted poles planted across the country, but those were never put into used. The poles were there. But
there was no electricity. That was simply because there was no addition to the national grid during the rule of the BNP-led government.

The power performance of Fakhruddin's military-backed government should be judged in the backdrop of the poor performance of the preceding government. The first thing the new government had to do was to stop the slide. The ball was rolling down at a very alarming speed.

It had to be stopped. The slide down was halted thanks to the competent management. Then came the turnaround. The power situation today is much better than what was during the previous five years, a period of stagnation and wastage.

This improvement is welcome. But it is not enough. It is far from what we need. Power is the engine of growth. Our economic growth will be impeded if we fail to increase our generation keeping pace with the demand fueled by industrialization and greater domestic use.

The government has moved to boost the generation. Contracts have been signed for 10 small IPPs with a total capacity of about 220, according to the power secretary, the top civil servant in the ministry.

His article contained more good news. Things are moving ahead even though the speed is not as fast as we would like to see. There is vulnerability too. The national grid failure following the Nov. 15 Cyclone Sidr served a blow to the power sector. It took days to restore power across the country.

The power secretary did not fail to mention the failure in his article. The openness is welcome. More welcome will be building a system that would prevent a further failure in the national grid. While the focus should be on adding more electricity to the national grid, the need for fixing the inefficient distribution system must not be ignored.