Govt mulls power export in winter

The government is considering exporting surplus electricity to Nepal during winter in Bangladesh when the demand for power remains low, the state minister for power and energy said yesterday.

“We are considering exporting electricity to Nepal during winter through the inter-country grid line we are going to set up,” Nasrul Hamid told reporters at his secretariat office.

During winter, the demand for electricity in Bangladesh decreases, so the country wants to find ways to export surplus electricity available at the time.

His comments came just two weeks after India issued a new cross-border power trading regulation, which will go a long way in helping Bangladesh import electricity from Nepal and Bhutan using Indian transmission lines.

India's power ministry approved the “Guidelines for Import/Export (Cross Border) of Electricity-2018” on December 18.

An inter-country grid line between Bangladesh and Nepal will be set up so that Bangladesh can import and export electricity, said Hamid.

On Sunday, which was election day, power production stood at 3,500 megawatts because of lower demand. The country has the capacity to generate an additional 15,000MW but it did not need to produce it.

But the government had to pay for the unused capacity, he said.

He said the power and energy sector had successfully implemented its short and medium-term plans and would execute long term plans in the next five years with investment amounting to about $40 billion.

“Bringing in the investment is a big challenge.”

Hamid said the efficiency in the power and energy sector had to be increased in the future. 

“If the efficiency goes up, the cost of production will go down significantly. As a result, we will not be needed to raise power tariff.”