Subsidised power plants to increase output cost

Experts at a discussion said setting up quick rental power plants would eventually increase production cost instead of solving power shortage in the country.
They said highly subsidised rental power scheme would increase the price of electricity. As a result, production cost would also be increased and this process ultimately will create a negative impact on people's purchasing power and economy.
Bangla weekly Shaptahik organised the roundtable discussion titled "Power crisis and public interest" at BIAM auditorium yesterday.
They also questioned the process of selecting companies to set up these quick rental stations without tender.
Presenting the keynote paper Shuvo Kibria, assistant editor of the weekly, said PDB will have to spend around Tk 5,000 crore as subsidy to purchase power with high cost from these foreign stations and sell it at a lower cost to the public, they added.
Aminul Islam Chowdhury, former energy advisor to a caretaker government, said some of the rental companies are bringing aged generators, which would not work properly instead consume more fuel and create more emission.
Economist Prof Anu Mohammad said Petrobangla is now considered a "losing enterprise" and blamed the World Bank's prescription for it. He also criticised the government for declining condition of PDB gradually.
He said additional fund for PDB in recently announced budget is actually subsidy allocation for purchasing electricity from these foreign companies.
Justice M Gholam Rabbani, BD Rahmatullah, former director general of power cell, Kazi Faruk, chairman of Consumers Association of Bangladesh, Prof Abu Ahmed, Engineer Sheikh Md Shahidullah, Maj Gen (Rted) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury Bir Bikram, among others, spoke.