Trackback URL
Download PDF The Power Development Board (PDB) has made a significant improvement in power supply in the last two months mainly by improving day-to-day management where officials and technical experts are encouraged to take independent decisions, sources said.
Moreover, the government’s successful implementation of load management and staggering holidays at industrial zones, improvement in gas supply to power plants, and high emphasis on bill collection also have significant contributions in this regard. Now the margin of load shedding has dropped from 1,200MW to a mere 100-200MW.
The country experienced load shedding by a massive margin of maximum 2,000MW a day last year.
Against an official maximum demand of 4,240MW, the PDB is now supplying more than 4,100MW of power from 100 different power units of 27 power plants by improving plant efficiency.
The same number of plants was providing the nation with maximum 2,800MW of power last year.
Since then, only one additional power unit of 70MW–the Mymensingh Power Plant–came into operation two months ago.
Currently, 12 power units remain shut down for maintenance work. If all these units start operation, the country’s power production could be as high as 4,600MW, which is more than the official demand.
In addition to increased power production, revenue collection by the PDB and Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Desa) has also shot up significantly.
Sources said PDB’s revenue collection has shot up to Tk 5,000 crore in the calendar year, while its bill collection ratio has shot up to 110 percent from its previous 80-85 percent.
PDB’s biggest single client Desa’s payment to PDB for purchase of power has exceeded Tk 100 crore a month.
“Desa’s bill collection ratio has also significantly gone up. Fearing arrest by the joint forces, many large power consumers that had deliberately defaulted on bills of hundreds of crores of taka are now paying off their arrears,” said an official.
The PDB’s overall systems loss has also improved by 2.5 percent in the last nine months. Whereas the systems loss was 17.5 percent in January, it quickly came down to 15 percent after the change of government.
“This alone has saved PDB power worth Tk 110 crore in the last nine months,” the official added.
“It doesn’t mean PDB’s problems are over. It means that even within limitations, professionals can do a better job if they are properly given the responsibility.
“There can be a major power blackout or grid failure and there is still load shedding. To ensure a safe power supply, we must have at least 10 percent additional capacity above the demand as a reserve margin.”
While the official power demand is shown at 4,250MW, unofficially this demand stands at maximum 5,200MW. But this additional demand is underplayed by not accommodating the full power demand of the Rural Electrification Board (REB) that doubled its distribution network during 2001-06 period.
“These improvements have been possible because the PDB has become active in the last several months,” said he.
In recent years, the PDB became an organisation devoid of leadership and proper decisions.
This was because the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the power ministry dictated many technical decisions and imposed many business decisions on the PDB.
As a result, the PDB chiefs took no decision that could “offend” the powerful ones who were only interested to bag various power deals. Some of these powerful ones included Harris Chowdhury, the then political secretary to the PM.
“The past PDB chairmen used to forward files to the ministry regarding a decision that he alone could take on a single day. There are records that PDB spent more than a month on a decision that could have been taken instantly,” a source pointed out.
Such indecisiveness also affected various gas sector bodies. Consequently, both power generation and gas supplies became acutely problematic. As gas is the main source of power generation, poor gas supply had caused many power plants to produce less power, while a number of power plants were generating less power because of technical difficulties.
The power ministry now encourages the PDB to work independently. The power secretary has given a clear directive that technical decisions will be taken by technical people.
Subsequently, the PDB chief motivates all technical hands to take decisions. Many decisions are even taken during phone conversations with technical hands.
“He tells them that he would back them always. Now that’s the assurance a leader should give to his subordinates. Earlier, this simple practice was a forgotten norm in the PDB,” he noted.
This encourages technicians to take professional decisions, which, in the recent past, came as orders from higher authorities.
PDB records show that on Tuesday it produced 4,013MW and on Monday 4,130MW of power. Throughout August, PDB’s power production hovered around 3,800MW.
The PDB broke its 4,000MW barrier on September 15 for the first time in Bangladesh’s history.
“In the past decisions like load management were taken, but they were not implemented. This time, load management or staggering holidays in industrial zones were successfully implemented, thanks to the government’s political will. After all, result of all good decisions depend on their proper implementation,” observed an official.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Now thats the kind of bangladesh I wanna live in :) Although, hoping it wouldn’t turn into something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUQ7jtaW-jU under the skin of so called “developement”
- http://atunu.blogspot.com