State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that Bangladesh has been working towards increasing its power generation capacity as the country needs 60,000 megawatt (MW) electricity to be a developed country by 2041.
“Currently the power generation capacity of the country has reached 16,046 MW and the government is working relentlessly to reach the general capacity of 24,000 MW by 2021 to become middle income country, he said.
Hamid said this while addressing a session on “Power for Human Development” at the ‘Rising Bangladesh’ conference at Loeb House of Harvard University in Boston, the United State. International Sustainable Development Institute (ISDI) of Florida and Centre for International Development of Harvard Kennedy School and Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute of Harvard University jointly organised the conference.
Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Advisor Dr Mashiur Rahman, Principal Co-ordinator (SDG Affairs) to the Prime Minister’s Office M Abul Kalam Azad, Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Kazi M Aminul Islam and General Secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed spoke on the occasion.
The state minister said massive initiatives are undertaken make Bangladesh developed by 2041. The power sector needs USD 82.5 billion to meet the demand and USD 22 billion has already been invested in the sector, he added.
As per the Power System Master Plan- 2018, the government was aspiring for a fuel mix comprising of 35 per cent natural gas, 35 per cent coal, import of 10 per cent renewable energy and nuclear; and other rest 20 per cent from other sources. The government, he said, is making optimum utilization of modern technologies to develop power distribution and transmission system and the automation work is going on.
“We are introducing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications; and Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems,” the state minister said. “The government is encouraging private investment in the power and energy sector and 50 per cent electricity is being generated by private sector,” added. Initiative has also been taken to handover a portion of distribution and transmission line of power under private sector.”
