100 percent uninterrupted power for eight industrial areas

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Sanchita Shitu
Published : 12:16, Jul 22, 2019 | Updated : 12:19, Jul 22, 2019

PowerPlans have been taken to ensure 100 percent power supply to industries of eight areas on a test basis. Eight areas of Mymensingh, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Dhaka have been chosen for this, informs a source from Power Cell. Power department says that the demand in these areas is 81 percent.

But instead of taking power from grids, power is being produced with own captive generators. Power is only taken from grids when own power sources face glitches. A power department official says: “entrepreneurs are now producing power in their own generators and keeping grids as alternatives.”

Industry owners have often said that they cannot rely on uninterrupted power from the grid; there are industries which will face irreparable loss even if the power supply is snapped for a minute.

Power Cell director, Amzad Hossain, said: “We have adopted N minus one technology to supply power; under this, there will be two supply lines. If one line faces problem then the other line will automatically start without any loss of time.”

Meanwhile, industry owners also want to take power from the grid but they have said that the supply has to be smooth and without interruption. The government is also considering a separate rate for industry owners. Against the current rate of Tk 8.44, it might be reduced to Tk 8.40.

As a result, those who produce power with furnace oil will be benefitted. Usually, the cost of power production with furnace oil is Tk. 11/12 per unit. But with the rise of the price of gas, captive production cost has also risen; if the cost of buying a generator is added along with maintenance cost then the expenditure of industry owners will rise; however, if they take power from the grid then they will be able to reduce expenses.

Power Development Board, PDB, has said that production capacity is 18 thousand megawatt but subscribers are getting 12 thousand megawatts.

Even if one to one and a half thousand megawatt is used up, another 4.5 thousand megawatt power is left unused. With the consent of industry owners, PDB will be able to use a few hundred megawatts of power.

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