Power sector suffering for lack of a cohesive policy: experts

The power and energy sector has been suffering from inconsistencies and inefficiencies due to a lack of a cohesive policy framework and arbitrary decision-making, experts said at a webinar yesterday.

They also called for steps like a comprehensive and coordinated policy that integrates the entire sector and ensures stakeholder participation.

Experts came up with the remarks at a webinar, titled "Devising a Participatory Approach for Effective Policy Making in the Power and Energy Sector", organised by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) yesterday.

Bangladesh last formed a National Energy Policy (NEP) in 1996, but in reality, it has remained mostly unimplemented, according to Sanem.

After a failed effort to update the NEP in 2004, a policy document for renewable energy development was mapped out in 2008, but the execution of the policy remained questionable.

"Despite having a plethora of plans in the power and energy sector, they failed to come under expert scrutiny due to a robust policy backing," said Sayema Haque Bidisha, professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and research director of SANEM.

"One crucial challenge is the crumbling structure and a lack of coordination among the different stakeholders. That's why fostering a private-public partnership would be excellent."

She also mentioned the necessity for specific policies utilising solar power in the irrigation and housing sector.

"Reliable, timely and frequent data flow from the government agencies remains one of the most pressing issues. So, there should be proper roadmap and goals to address both short and long-term challenges."

She further added that providing sustainable renewable energy in the context of Bangladesh should have been a crucial, non-negotiable goal.

At present, the government must identify the pressing concerns to achieve energy security and improve efficiency, said Sakib Bin Amin, associate professor of the department of economics at North South University.

"We need to focus on the time-variant effective energy policies and work together by addressing the problem at the grassroots levels. Our policies should not focus on the short-term solutions only, but also shed light on the mid and long-term solution," he added.

Dipal C Barua, founder and chairman of Bright Green Energy Foundation, said that rooftop solar power generation should be given priority instead of exploiting agricultural land.

"Bangladesh shouldn't depend on import of diesel, furnish oil or even solar panels to ensure energy and food security."

"Power overcapacity is not a problem, as we have fuel diversification. So, to provide reliable and uninterrupted power, we need to have this capacity," said Md Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury, assistant professor at United International University.

During the peak demand last summer, the total power generation was around 16,500 megawatts against the capacity of 26,500 megawatts, close to 60 percent of the capacity.

"This capacity is needed to face fuel price vulnerability and uncertainty in the future."

Md Khalilur Rahman Khan, secretary of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, said that international financial organisations or development partners fund different studies and research, so most of the time the results reflect their viewpoint only.

"That's why policies based on such research do not yield the expected results."