Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, yesterday asked Independent Power Producers to increase electricity generation by May 1.

Representatives of Bangladesh Independent Power Producers' Association (BIPPA) met the state minister at the secretariat to discuss ways to boost power production.

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Sources said the state minister told the power plant owners to utilise the furnace oil-based power plants.

"In the future, you will not be allowed to get capacity payments unless you generate power. If power generation doesn't increase by May 1, we will impose fines as per agreement," a top ministry official told The Daily Star, quoting Nasrul.

The BIPPA representatives agreed to increase power generation from next month, said the official, adding that if everything goes as planned there will be next to no power cuts this year.

Some districts of the country have been seeing eight to 10 hours of power outages every day, said officials of Bangladesh Power Development Board.

On April 22, the PDB produced a record 16,233MW. However, there were still power cuts.

The PDB has been producing up to 7,400MW from gas-based power plants, about 4,100MW from coal-fired plants and about 3,100MW from furnace-oil based plants.

The country's liquid fuel-based power plants have a combined capacity of around 6,000MW. But PDB rarely produces more than 3,500MW due to a shortage of fuel.