The budget included a goal of ensuring electricity to every household within five years.
It increased the target for power generating capacity to 24,000MW of electricity by 2021.
These plans involve building 71 extra power plants by 2018. Most of these power plants are intended to be gas-based as they are cheaper than those that run on diesel or furnace oil.
However, doubts exist about the availability of an adequate gas supply, because there have been growing shortages in recent years. Unless fresh gas reserves are developed quickly, the new plants may not be able to go into production or will be forced to rely on costlier imported oil.
The economy needs reliable and cost–efficient power. It also needs to ensure sustainability as well as energy security. It is imperative that the government reduce subsidies on power and gas, in order to discourage waste and stimulate investment in new power supplies, particularly from renewable sources.
Cutting subsidies will give more incentive to power companies to invest in generating capacity.
As well as seeking to increase domestic production, and to stimulate generation from sources such as solar and bio-gas, the government must act to build bilateral, and regional agreements.
These have the potential to enable power from sustainable sources, such as hydro-power plants in Nepal, to be imported from neighbouring countries.
There is no alternative but to think long term and prioritise increasing efficiency and reducing dependency on finite fossil fuels.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
