The Power Division will convene a broad-based meeting to discuss the fuel supply problem with rental and quick rental power plant sponsors and other stakeholders.
This was decided at a high level meeting at the Power Division with State Minister Nasrul Hamid in the chair.
Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Power Secretary Monowar Islam, Energy Secretary Mozammel Haque Khan and other top officials.
Though no date was fixed for the meeting, but it could be possible in the first week of next month, officials said.
Official sources said the Power Division has been dealing with blame and counter blame between the Power Development Board and rental power plants over the quality and timely petroleum fuel supply to the power plants.
The sponsors have been alleging that their plants are not getting supply of good quality diesel and furnace oil and in scheduled time. As a result, they could not generate electricity as per contract.
For the bottlenecks, they were blaming mainly the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB), Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and the Railway Department.
Of the three, PDB is largely responsible for supply of quality fuel in scheduled time. But PDB has to depend on BPC and Railway Department for import of quality fuel and supply those in scheduled time.
On the other hand, the PDB has been imposing penalty on the rental and quick rental power plants for their failure to generate electricity as per contract. The PDB was alleging that those failing to generate electricity as per contracted-capacity were mainly because of their outdated machineries.
After such blame and counter blame, the Power Division formed an inquiry committee, headed by its additional secretary Mofazzal Hossain to investigate the whole matter. The committee prepared a report on the basis of its findings and it was placed in the Thursday’s meeting. Mofazzal Hossain, however, has been transferred from the Power Division recently.
Sources said the meeting discussed the report and decided to hold a broad-based meeting with all the stakeholders including sponsors of the rental and quick rental power plants, representatives of the PDB, BPC and Railway Department. All of them will be invited to present their issues in the meeting.
They said that the committee in some cases found the PDB allegations to be true while in some cases the allegations from the sponsors of rental and quick rental power plants were factual.
“But the (Thursday’s) meeting could not reach any conclusion. Rather, it decided to listen to all the stakeholders in a broad-based meeting,” said a Deputy Secretary at the Power Division.
The government set up a good number of rental and quick rental power plants in private sector in last 5 years to resolve the nagging power crisis. But many of the plants could not deliver adequate power supply as per contract.
The government has to purchase electricity from these plants at higher price, which drew criticism from experts in the power sector. They blamed the high-cost rental plants’ power for rise in electricity tariff.
Source: UNBConnect
