LOOKING BACK: 2009
No progress in power, energy sector
The Awami League-led government in its one year in office has failed to make any significant progress in the power and energy sector while it has made some controversial decisions that are against the interest of the country.
The government, which assumed office on January 6, 2009, could not sign a single contract for any power plant installation till December 25. It could not even complete the tender process for large power plants such as the 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant during its 11 months in office.
The government, with the current pace of power plant project implementation, will face a massive hurdle in implementing its election pledge to increase the total power generation to 5,000MW by 2011 and 7,000MW by 2013 from the existing 3,600MW to 3,800MW, power officials said.
About 300MW of electricity was added in a year, mostly from short-term rental and small independent plants in the first half of 2009, but all the power projects were planned and launched by the previous interim government, they said.
The government's effort to add about 530MW of electricity from costly rental power plants during the next irrigation season has virtually fallen flat as none of the plants are likely to start generation before May because of a delay in tender process completion and the government's purchase committee decision.
The government also failed to ensure full electricity generation at the 90MW Fenchuganj power plant and 2x120MW Siddhirganj power plant although contracts for the power plants were awarded in 2006 and 2007.
The state minister for power and energy, Md Enamul Haque, told a meting of the parliamentary standing committee on the power and energy ministry on Thursday that the amount of additional electricity would reach 960 MW by January 2010 from the time when the government assumed office. All the power plants, from which additional power will come, including Siddhirganj and Fenchuganj, were launched by previous governments.
Implementation of other power projects such as the Bibiyana and Sirajganj independent, 2x150M Siddhirganj, 150MW Bhola, 360MW Haripur power plants and two 150MW plants at Sirajganj and Khulna is still uncertain because of lack of government attention as it is busy launching some short-term rental plants.
The tender process for two 150mw power plants in the public sector — Sylhet and Chandpur — has so far been completed during the tenure of this government while the cabinet committee on purchase on Wednesday approved the selection of bidders for five costly rental power plants with a capacity of generating about 330MW of electricity.
The government wanted to install eight rental power plants with a capacity to produce about 520MW of electricity before the irrigation season.
It, however, was unsuccessful in the bidding for three plants while it selected three inexperienced companies to install five plants.
A number of Power Development Board officials have doubted whether these companies could install the plants in 120 to 270 days.
The government, on the other hand, made some controversial decisions to favour international oil companies.
It has allowed the UK-based oil company Cairn to sell gas directly to a third party bypassing Petrobangla at a higher price when it would start gas production in the Magnama structure in the Bay of Bengal.
It has also decided to award the US company Chevron to install a gas processor at Muchai at a cost of more than $50 million without any tender.
The government also created controversy for its move to award three offshore blocks to two international oil companies by keeping an option for gas export. The move resulted in violent protests by different rights group and left-leaning political parties and the first general strike during the tenure of this government.
It has also failed to reach its target of adding about 100 million cubic feet of gas a day from the gas fields owned by state-run companies by 2009. Petrobangla could add about 30mmcfd of gas from the state-run companies.
The total gas production in the year, however, was increased by around 150mmcfd in a controversial manner by allowing Chevron to extract gas beyond the tolerable limit from the Bibiyana field. Despite the increase, the country faces a shortage of about 200mmcfd of gas.
Although the government took a fast-track programme to increase gas production by 130mmcfd in two to three years, energy experts said the programme might ultimately become unsuccessful as the government would continue to give the state-run companies Tk 7 a unit of gas whereas international oil companies get gas about Tk 200 a unit.
The government's election pledge to adopt a 'comprehensive long-term policy on electricity and energy' still remains elusive while it could not finalise the much-talked-about coal policy in a year.
'The track record of one year of this government shows it will be hard for the Awami League to implement its election pledge. It is not easy to produce 3,000MW–4,000MW of electricity in three to four years when you lose one year without much progress,' Professor Nurul Islam of BUET told New Age on Thursday. http://www.newagebd.com/2009/dec/27/front.html |