A tale of two power plants

Power plants suffering from load shedding. Photo: Wahid Adnan/ Drik News

PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation of a 150 MW combined cycle power plant at Chandpur on April 25. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) earlier approved this power project together with an identical project at Sylhet at a total cost of Tk.2,080 crore.
The story does not begin here. The two projects were initially approved by Ecnec exactly nine years ago under the chairpersonship of the same prime minister during her first term. At that time the cost of the two projects was Tk.728 crore only. The projects were due to be completed by 2004. Her government failed to implement them as her term of office ended in July 2001.
Begum Khaleda Zia came to power for the second term in October 2001. Her government was in no hurry to implement the projects initiated by her political adversary and wasted three years looking for foreign assistance.
As no foreign assistance was available, it was decided that the projects would be implemented with suppliers' credit. Accordingly the projects got approval for the second time in July 2004 at an estimated cost of Tk.404 crore each.
Begum Khaleda's term of office ended in October 2006 but the projects could not see the light of the day. As no suppliers' credit could be lined up, the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed later decided to implement the projects with its own fund. They too failed to start the construction of the projects. Finally, the onus of constructing the projects came back to Sheikh Hasina's government in January 2009.
The handling of the two projects during the nine long years by the bureaucrats and the political leadership raises several important questions. How could an elected government waste five years only looking for foreign aid or suppliers' credit without taking available alternative measures for implementation?
Could not the caretaker government start the construction of the projects during their term in office? I must add here that the present government was also slow in taking decisions in this sector during the first year in office.
What did the delay of the projects cost to the nation? First of all, the total capital cost of the projects increased by Tk.1,352 crore ($193 million) during the nine years. This is peanuts compared to the associated losses. Let us try to find out what 300 MW of power could do for the country, considering the garment industry as an example.
An average garment factory in Bangladesh takes a load of about 100 kW, employs 350 workers in a single shift of 10 hours per day, and exports goods worth $3 million annually. Accordingly, 300 MW of electricity could power roughly 3,000 garment factories of the same size, employ a total of over one million workers and earn $9 billion annually without any interruption of working hours.
An hour of interruption per day due to load shedding thus causes a net annual loss of production worth $900 million! Every day we are now having power cuts for 3-5 hours! One can easily imagine that the total losses in terms of production for hours of load shedding per day over the years are simply colossal.
I mentioned the two power plants only as examples. As a matter of fact, a total of 3,000 MW of power should have been added to the PDB grid in the last nine years in order to make the system operate without any load shedding today.
Do the technocrats, bureaucrats and the political leaders, for whose negligence and inefficiency the two power projects at Sylhet and Chandpur and other planned generating units got delayed, now realise what harm they have done to the country and its people?
Because of the delay in the implementation of the planned power projects, the peak power demand now exceeds the available generating capacity by 2,000 MW. As a result, we have hours of load shedding during the torturous summer days, loss of production in industries, and idle man-hours in offices, commercial concerns and industrial units.
The power crisis has slowed down new investments in the economic sector. It is affecting the supply of potable water in urban areas and irrigation water in the agricultural fields. Slower investment is breeding unemployment. Add to it the frustrations of the people without electricity, water and natural gas. The consequences can be catastrophic.
This is a man-made crisis to which the whole nation has become hostage. Being desperate, the government is planning to buy 500-1000 MW of rental power from foreign companies at very high costs, incurring heavy losses.
The supply of electricity, water and natural gas has become the biggest challenge for the present government. It must take up a crash program now to increase the generating capacity of the system and move very fast to build the planned power projects.
The embarrassment the present crisis is causing to the government should be no consolation to those who helped to bring it about. Do they have the moral right now to demonstrate in the streets demanding "immediate solution" to the crisis, knowing fully well that they are the real architects of the crisis that has no quick solution?
Unfortunately, this is not only a tale of two power plants only but also a sad story of sabotage against the economy of the country and the well-being of its people. Electricity is one of the major driving forces of the economy of any country. If the supply of electricity is interrupted, the economy of the country is paralysed.
Any attempt that impedes the implementation of a power project should be considered as a crime, like the sabotage of an electric transmission line or a generating station. If sabotage is a punishable crime, why should not the actions of the technocrats, bureaucrats or the policy makers who deliberately neglected or impeded the implementation of the power projects be also punishable?
In my opinion there should be an impartial inquiry by a high-powered body into the causes of the present power crisis, and anyone found guilty of negligence or inefficiency should be brought to justice. This will at least prevent the recurrence of similar crises in the future.

Dr. Abdul Matin is a former Chief Engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with specialisation in energy and power system planning.