Bangladesh has over 70 public and private sector power plants presently under construction. These power plants will add 18,905 MW to the national power capacity. Out of these nearly 47 are going to be operational in next five years.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told Nuclear Asia: “The government is working hard to materialize the Prime Minister’s vision – ‘Access to electricity for everyone within 2021’. We’re hopeful that our target will be achieved.”
According to the officials of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) 47 power plants are expected to start operation within the time-frame from 2018 to 2024. These 47 power plants will have a cumulative capacity of 13,813 MW. Apart from this, tenders have been floated for installing 30 more power plants with a total capacity of 5,092 MW.
Mohammad Hossain, the Director General of Power Cell, a technical arm of Power Division, Ministry of Power and Energy & Mineral Resources added that 47 of the upcoming power plants will start their corresponding operations step by step. “Out of these power plants, 18 are state-run having a total capacity of 7,313 MW and rest of them are privately owned having an accumulated capacity of 6,458 MW,” Hossain told Nuclear Asia.
He also added that around 4,676 MW of more power is likely to be added to the national grid from these new power plants in the year 2018; 4,833 MW of additional power will be added in 2019; 4,072 MW to be added in 2020 and 3,047 MW to be added in 2021.
