Future of global energy market 'uncertain'

State Minister for Energy and Power Nasrul Hamid yesterday said the future of global energy market could be uncertain largely due to increasing trend of renewable energy usage and decreasing oil prices.

“Energy market of the world will become uncertain in future since many oil producing countries know that demand and price of oil are decreasing. Many countries have gone for renewable energy. Different types of taxes are likely to be imposed on the emissions from coal-based power production,” he told a seminar in the capital's Institution of Engineers.

Electrical engineering division of the institution organised the seminar on cross-border and regional power trade.

The state minister said Western countries had gone for regional and cross-border trading and cooperation in the field of power many years ago, benefiting all the quarters concerned.

“But in our region, we are yet to start regional power trade. We hope to start the process in full swing within a few years.”

He said power generation in Bangladesh was a great challenge due to the requirement of large amount of capital and trained human resources.

“In Bangladesh, we do not have many people who have experience of working in the technical and managerial levels of a power plant. That is why we should go for cross-border power trade, which would benefit us.”

The country's power generation capacity is now around 14,000MW to 16,500MW. It will be difficult to handle the amount of power when the capacity will increase to 24,000MW, he said.

Mahbubur Rahman, director of Bangladesh Power Development Board, said strong political will was needed to move towards regional energy cooperation which would ensure energy security and overall socio-economic benefit in the region.