Bad news in a very good story in the renewable energy sector in
Bangladesh: A specific proposal Its time to separate the lost souls
from the engieering sector of Bangladesh and recycle. Send them to the
village to replace some of the cows for our farmers, if possible. With
two years of such community service, they will have hopefully regain
their souls and will be ready serve their profession again. There are
some encouraging projects and movement in the policy level that is going
on in the energy sector of Bangladesh. It should however be pointed out
that things takes time to change, specifically in the energy sector. So,
its important to distinguish our everyday misery with electricity and
what should we expect in few years time. Its not possible to go
through all the issues here, however, we would like to point out an
important aspect of the problem and two implications. With the
eminent success in this long neglected topic, the main culprits (read:
senior engineers e.g. chief engineers and policy making members in
different power bodies such as PDB, REB, DESA, etc) are also sensing
this. Its not surprising that they will sense the change in the wind,
they are also worried that their channels of earning money may vanish
soon. So it seems that they are doing two things: 1. They are changing
their talking points, they are starting two championing all the good
things that could be done in the power sector and those of which they
have so far suppressed. You may ask whats wrong with that? They could
not support all the good ideas so far since there was not any
environment. Now that things are changing in the policy level with
governments active support for good changes, these engineers and members
of the different policy making boards are also getting on board, that
should be seen as a good thing - why should we incriminate them with
reference to the past mistakes. To answer that we would point out that
the mistakes shouldn't go unrecognized and unaccounted for. Mistakes
should be punished. Punishment can be creative in the sense that they do
not have to go to jail, but unless its not identified, what prevents
that they won't do the same again? 2. But more important thing is who
will make sure that these technical and policy making leaderships (who
have presided over the biggest mess of our time), who makes sure that
they are not going to subotaging the whole thing? Off course they are
smart enough to reach on top, they will find their way to slow down the
progress and/or kill the whole thing. History of past 17 months tells
that for any person who are informed. You are not convinced? Let us tell
you two things to prove our point: (I). There is a talk in the policy
level about how to encourage the consumers to buy energy-saving bulbs
which has the potential to save about 500 MW electricity in the grid.
One proposal that are being talked about in the policy making level to
tie this encouragement project with the system loss of power. What they
are saying is people will not change to energy-saving bulbs because many
consumers are stealing the electricity and hence already paying less.
Their contention is that since consumers are already paying less, they
will not be motivated to change from conventional bulb to energy-saving
bulb. So, they are saying you have to stop the stealing (reduce system
loss) in order to make the energy-saving bulb adoption. So one of the
prescription is to tie this project with the billing of REB/DESA/PDB and
somehow achieve the goal in a very non-market and dubious way. On the
face of it, this may seem very intelligent. However, we would like to
point out that this is just another ploy to slow down the progress
and/or kill the initiative. They are trying to tie the two problems
(which are independently very complex) together and suggesting a policy
that is prescribing that you can not achieve the second goal
(energy-saving bulb adoption) unless you achieve the first goal (reduce
system loss). Sounds great. We can solve the both problem, isn't it?
Think again! What they are actually might be trying is this: They know
how to kill any project that aims to reduce system loss. Its not just
possible given the economic framework. So, when they suggest the policy
they know that the first goal will not be achieve, so the second goal
will not also be achieved. However, what is the alternative that we
are suggesting? Its very plain. You have two problem and they are
independently complex enough. Do not tie them together. Use a market
based mechanism to reduce the entry-cost of the consumers by either
subsidizing the consumers or help reducing the production cost of the
energy-saving bulb. This will make sure the majority of the consumers
will switch to energy-saving bulb. A specific proposal will be to
separate 1000 crore taka (a certain percentage of the installation cost
for a 500 MW power-plant) and use that money to encourage consumers to
switch. Government could employ agencies to replace any functioning
traditional bulbs with a energy-saving bulb for free. Just make a
program like OMS for a short period of time. That will create awareness.
Do it in all the areas where local government elections are scheduled
for next month. This will be a good project to see whether the
candidates uses their time to demonstrate what kind of public office
holder they will be. Once an awareness campaign is done successfully,
make those bulb available in the regular stores for the same price of
the traditional bulbs. Ban those bulbs, if you can. Force the local
manufacturers or importers to switch, give them one time cash incetives.
That solves one problem - the second problem (energy-saving bulb
adotpion). Majority of the consumers will switch. However, this will
also help solve the first problem, too (reduce system loss). How? As
those dishonest consumers (who are stealing now with the help of crooked
engineers) will notice that electricity bills are going down. So, there
will be less incentive for stealing. And probably that is the big fear
of those cheif engineers and members of the policy making bodies (public
jodi valo hoye jai, tahle tu oder aar khana thakbe na). (II). With
certain kind of euphemism with the good success story in the renewable
energy in Bangladesh, the country is going in the right direction with
or without the help of the government policy-makers. This progress is
happening mostly in the private sectors and with the leadership role of
certain NGOs. While the culprits in the government agencies are trying
their best to kill or slow down the progress with instruments that are
within their reach, they are also ploying to kill the euphemism in the
market place. Want an example? Allow us to give one. They will often
tell you that Bangladesh can't fully depend on the renewables, they will
give one example of Germany since they have the most advanced policy in
this renewable sector. So, the example that they cite is this: Even
Germany has a target to achieve 22% of renewable energy in the grid. So,
the implication is that we should not aim higher than that. But what
they do not tell you is this: Germany's 22% is much higher than our
total demand. What can you conclude from that? Any school going boy will
say that if Germany can aim to achieve 22% dependency on renewable
energy, then we can achieve 100% dependency, isn't it? However, those
who understand the nature of load in the enegy grid, they will tell you,
theoretically we should not be aiming for 100%, but nothing prevents one
to aim for a renewable dependency of 85% in Bangladesh, given the
current state of energy consumption. Off course, over time, as we
develop, we may have to to reduce that load to about 50%. In other
words, 50% renewable dependency is a very realistic, achievable and
theoretically possible goal for Bangladesh to pursue. Now the
quesiton is whether Dr. Tamim has the materials to understand that and
off course, whether he has the will-power to do what it takes to remove
the criminals from the policy making bodies in PDB, REB, DESA, etc.
Only time will answer that question. If you thought some of the ideas
are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have
an ear to the columnists in regular traditional media, please forward it
to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the
electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the
suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
------------------------------------
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:mukto-mona-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:mukto-mona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
mukto-mona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: