Why are power plants underproducing amid heatwave?

It is disheartening to know that despite the mild to moderate heatwaves sweeping through the country and raising demand for electricity as a result, about one-third of the total power generation capacity of Bangladesh remains unutilised. That's according to a report by this newspaper which, after analysing data on the power plants, found that at least 100 out of the 154 plants are not producing electricity as per their capacity. For example, the gas-based power plants produced 5,846MW despite having the capacity of 11,094MW. The furnace oil-based plants produced 2,660MW when they have the capacity of 5,925MW. The private diesel-fired plants produced 230MW despite having the capacity of 1,286MW. At present, the country's total electricity generation capacity is 22,566MW.

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Power plants riddled with myriad problems

The underproduction or underutilisation of power capacity, caused mostly by lack of fuel and maintenance-related issues, means that power outages are becoming more frequent, especially in districts and villages outside Dhaka, causing heavy suffering among the ordinary people. In other words, not only are we failing to reduce the extreme heat caused by, among other influences, our unplanned development and environmental degradation, we are also failing to generate enough electricity to cushion the blow.

During heatwaves, people consume more electricity by using ACs, fans, etc. However, power generation didn't increase proportionately when, in recent days, the temperature started to increase. One of the reasons cited for this failure is lack of fuel (gas, oil, coal, etc.) to generate power. Unfortunately, Bangladesh's energy sector is still heavily dependent on fuel imports. Any crisis in supply inevitably boils down to dollar shortage which has been ravaging our economy since last year. However, a sustained crisis is nothing but a policy failure. This is why even frequently raising power tariffs couldn't ensure uninterrupted access to electricity when it is most needed.

In the past few days, we've received reports of outages from various parts of the country. In an increasingly warming Bangladesh, according to new research, 37.5 percent of people in villages and 5.3 million people in Dhaka are at risk of suffering extreme summer heat. This calls for urgent steps to address it through proper environmental action but also, crucially, through properly utilising our power capacity. Making the required fuel imports available is a priority for now. But we also must plan with an eye on the future and shift focus to renewable options and explore our own gas reserves.