Photo : Collected
Bangladesh will import 1,000 MW of renewable electricity from India, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said on Thursday. A memorandum of understanding has already been signed in this regard, the state minister told reporters at his office in the Secretariat in the afternoon.
Nasrul said he expects that electricity through this renewable energy will be connected to Bangladesh's national grid soon. Before the import of renewable energy from India, an agreement is underway to bring 40 MW of electricity from Nepal this month, said the state minister. Besides, there are initiatives to import electricity from Bhutan, he added.
Bangladesh currently imports electricity produced from gas and fuel oil from India's Tripura on a government-to-government basis. Bangladesh also imports electricity from Adani Power's coal-based plant as well. The Bangladesh government is focusing on shifting to renewable energy from fossil fuel produced electricity. It has set a target to reach 10 per cent renewable energy within 2025 and 40 per cent by 2041.
Meanwhile, speaking at the press conference, State Minister Nasrul said the current high prices of power, gas and fuel oil is mostly owed to the strong dollar. "Till the dollar price stabilises, the prices of power, gas and fuel oils coming down is low," he said.
"Many people ask me why the cost of electricity generation is not as we estimated it would be at the beginning of the inauguration of coal-based power plants. The production cost of these power plants was estimated at Tk79 per dollar. The rate of that dollar is now Tk117. Not only coal, but also the cost of power generation in other sectors has increased due to dollar price," said the state minister.
Besides, he said the government's plan to cut subsidies to the power, energy sector is also contributing to the high prices. "The government gives about 50% subsidy. Now the government wants to get out of paying this subsidy. Therefore, price adjustment will be done. It has already been done twice. It will be done twice more this year. The price will be adjusted when the government says so."
Earlier in March this year, during a meeting with Nasrul, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Pranay Verma said the import of hydropower from Nepal to Bangladesh was ongoing. He also said India was also importing about 600MW of electricity from Nepal.
The issues on high voltage transmission lines, renewable energy, import-export of electricity, R-LNG, fuel capacity enhancement, energy efficiency, and future regional connectivity was discussed at the meeting.
Messenger/Fameema
