Seventeen state-owned power plants that generated no electricity at all during the past fiscal year spent over Tk 1,549 crore and also consumed 56.78 lakh units of electricity from the national grid.

The 17 out-of-operation plants spent Tk 220 crore on fuel for giving their machines test runs, Tk 67.58 crore for maintenance, and over Tk 1,261 crore in salary and other costs, an account of the Bangladesh Power Development Board for 2023–24 shows.

Some of the plants, built in the 1970s and 1980s, finished their economic lives and their operation became a loss project due to excessive fuel consumption.

But some other power plants sat idle apparently owing to the indifference of the authorities that resulted in failure to do maintenance work in time, or failure to import spare parts, managers of these plants said.

‘Idle power plants did not supply power to the grid, but they needed power to periodically run many machines to keep them operable,’ said Zahurul Islam, chief engineer, Ghorashal power plant.

Three units of the seven-unit Ghorashal power plant did not produce any power, but required a large sum to pay salary to its 300 employees sitting idle.

The 65MW Unit-7 of the Ghorashal power plant remained out of operation since September 2022 for maintenance work which could not be completed over delay in importing spare parts.

The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources took months to give the permission for the import, leaving the plant, commissioned on January 23, 2018 with 150 employees, out of operation for months.

The Unit-7consumed 26.48 lakh units of power from the national grid in the past fiscal for conducting test runs to keep the machines operable.

It also spent over Tk 21 lakh to buy fuel to run some of its machines, over Tk 7 crore for maintenance, and more than Tk 340 crore as fixed cost to cover staff salaries and other expenses, including hospitality expenditure.

The Ghorashal power plant’s 260MW Unit-3, commissioned on January 22, 2019, has remained out of operation since July 2021 due to a broken turbine blade.

The gas-fired plant ordered the import of the blade, but the process got stuck over a legal wrangle between the importer Smith Cogeneration and the government.

The Unit-3 required more than Tk 3.34 crore in maintenance cost and over Tk 277 crore as fixed cost in 2023–24.

The 110MW Unit-1 of the Ghorashal power plant, set up in 1974, was declared completely shut down on December 31, 2020.

But the BPDB account showed that the gas-based Unit-1 spent more than Tk 33 crore in maintenance, and over Tk 141 crore in fixed cost in 2023–24.

‘The expenses are actually for grid network. The Unit-1 does not exist but its premises accommodate a huge grid control room that is still functional,’ said Zahurul.

Energy experts have long questioned the economic viability of the Unit-1 and also some other aged power plants.

They said that Bangladesh could not afford spending such large amounts of money every year, especially in the current sorry state of its economy.

Bangladesh has drained its foreign reserve, particularly over the last decade, in power and energy sector, eventually seeking $4.7 billion in loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Mainly six gas-based power plants, including the three Ghorashal units that generated no electricity at all, caused large expenses. The 66MW Shahjibazar power plant, 115MW Shiddhirganj, and 330MW Shahjibazar are the three other plants.

The Unit-4 and 5 of Ghorashal are also sitting idle, though they are available for power generation, because of gas shortage.

The most striking case of wastage of resources, however, was presented by one of the eight diesel-based power plants that did not generate any electricity.

The 2MW Sandwip power plant spent over Tk 19 lakh in maintenance work and Tk 28.56 crore in fixed cost.

‘The fixed cost is unbelievable. The power plant is no more than a power generator,’ said Hasan Mehedi, member secretary, Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development, commenting over the high fixed cost. 

The 2MW Hatiya power plant spent over Tk 15.74 crore as fixed cost.

The 2MW Kutubdia power plant spent Tk 2.30 crore for fuel and Tk 22.53 crore in maintenance.   

The diesel-based Bheramara, Saidpur and Barishal power plants, each with an installed generation capacity of 20MW, consumed substantial amount of electricity from the national grid.

Three wind-based power plants also did not produce any power during the past fiscal.

BPDB chairman Rezaul Karim did not respond to phone calls.

Bangladesh is struggling with a huge imbalance in its power generation system. With a currently installed capacity of 27,791MW, the country cannot steadily generate 12000MW.

Scores of power plants are sitting idle over fuel shortages and technical glitches.

News Link: 17 power plants spend Tk 1,500cr producing no power