power generation crosses 13,000MW mark in Bangladesh

[Homo Sapiens]

Milestone as power generation crosses 13,000MW mark
Tribune Desk

• Published at 08:44 am April 4th, 2021

File photo of power transmission linesBigstock

The BPDB has already taken up an extensive capacity expansion plan to give a boost to the power sector, aiming to generate 40,000MW by 2030
Amid growing demand for electricity due to the scorching summer heat since mid-March, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has registered a whopping 13,018 megawatt (MW) production, setting a new record for the country.
The record generation was reported at 9pm on Saturday, according to Saiful Hasan Chowdhury, director of public relations of the BPDB.
The previous highest production was 12,893 MW as recorded on May 29, 2019.
Bangladesh’s power sector first crossed the 12,000MW milestone on April 24, 2019, with the 11,000MW mark crossed on July 7, 2018.
Also read - Study: Bangladesh’s power sector heading towards financial disaster
Earlier, the country had gone past the 10,000MW mark for the first time on March 19, 2017. Prior to that, the 9,000MW level was crossed for the very first time on June 30, 2016.
As of Saturday, Bangladesh’s installed power generation capacity, including captive power and renewable energy, is 24,982 MW, with 99% of the population having access to electricity.
The BPDB has already taken up an extensive capacity expansion plan to give a boost to the power sector, aiming to generate 40,000MW by 2030, for which a mammoth investment billion is needed. The massive investment plan is also meant to provide uninterrupted power supply, Power Division officials said, adding that the government is committed to ensuring 100% electricity coverage by this year.

Milestone as power generation crosses 13,000MW mark

The BPDB has already taken up an extensive capacity expansion plan to give a boost to the power sector, aiming to generate 40,000MW by 2030

www.dhakatribune.com

 

[mb444]

Milestone as power generation crosses 13,000MW mark
Tribune Desk

• Published at 08:44 am April 4th, 2021

File photo of power transmission linesBigstock

The BPDB has already taken up an extensive capacity expansion plan to give a boost to the power sector, aiming to generate 40,000MW by 2030
Amid growing demand for electricity due to the scorching summer heat since mid-March, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has registered a whopping 13,018 megawatt (MW) production, setting a new record for the country.
The record generation was reported at 9pm on Saturday, according to Saiful Hasan Chowdhury, director of public relations of the BPDB.
The previous highest production was 12,893 MW as recorded on May 29, 2019.
Bangladesh’s power sector first crossed the 12,000MW milestone on April 24, 2019, with the 11,000MW mark crossed on July 7, 2018.
Also read - Study: Bangladesh’s power sector heading towards financial disaster
Earlier, the country had gone past the 10,000MW mark for the first time on March 19, 2017. Prior to that, the 9,000MW level was crossed for the very first time on June 30, 2016.
As of Saturday, Bangladesh’s installed power generation capacity, including captive power and renewable energy, is 24,982 MW, with 99% of the population having access to electricity.
The BPDB has already taken up an extensive capacity expansion plan to give a boost to the power sector, aiming to generate 40,000MW by 2030, for which a mammoth investment billion is needed. The massive investment plan is also meant to provide uninterrupted power supply, Power Division officials said, adding that the government is committed to ensuring 100% electricity coverage by this year.

Milestone as power generation crosses 13,000MW mark

The BPDB has already taken up an extensive capacity expansion plan to give a boost to the power sector, aiming to generate 40,000MW by 2030

www.dhakatribune.com

For electricity every taka is well spent even with BAL graft.... keep going a nation of 165m needs all the power we can generate.

 

[Bilal9]

For electricity every taka is well spent even with BAL graft.... keep going a nation of 165m needs all the power we can generate.

BAL went a bit overboard building powerplants because of graft needs, like in all other Bangladesh 'development' sectors. I guess not too bad, can't have the reverse, which is plain churi without development, and stashing away funds in S'pore and Swiss banks like some other countries.

Power consumption per capita in Bangladesh is still minuscule, because we don't use massive amounts of electricity in industries, for example in smelters for refining metals like steel. like our Western neighbor does.

Of course India's consumption per capita is still nothing compared to China, which is what we should aim for.

Annual per capita electricity consumption in China from 2009 to 2019 (in kilowatt hours) grew from 2782 to 5161 kWh.

That of India for 2012 to 2019 was 914 to 1208 kWh. Or one-third of world average which is 3500 kWh.

That of Bangladesh in 2019 was 433 kWh (one third of India), which is lower than Pakistan (557 kWh for 2020).

A long way to go. Nothing to celebrate for now. Dilli door ast.

We are going to need plenty of electricity when all of 100 SEZ's start functioning, if the AL hype is anything to go by (hopefully by 2030).

In the interim, a lot of old powerplants in Bangladesh will go obsolete, will be down because of maintenance/upkeep, so there will be need to back-fill.

However we have a lot of powerplants (big ones) in the pipeline as well. Rampal (when the foot-dragger Indian companies finally decide to hand it over in another five years, cue Modi for the inauguration at that time for how much "Maitri" we paid for), Rooppur NPP (Russian), Payra 2nd Unit (Chinese & next year) and Matarbari (large unit as big as Payra in two years, a 2nd unit again as big is planned in five years). I'm sure there are others.

Current grid consumption (about 12000 MW) is actually well below capacity (25000 MW) by about 50%, a lot of generation units are temporarily idle and drawing unneeded expense. However they won't be for long.

 

[DalalErMaNodi]

Fix power transmission.

 

[Bilal9]

Fix power transmission.

Power grid (transmission) quality is not bad. Personal anecdote from friends who are electrical engineers in Bangladesh.

It is reportedly world class (though the term is overused as a cliché).

But local distribution in neighborhoods (below 440V level) may be sub par.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Annual per capita electricity consumption in China from 2009 to 2019 (in kilowatt hours) grew from 2782 to 5161 kWh.

That of India for 2012 to 2019 was 914 to 1208 kWh. Or one-third of world average which is 3500 kWh.

That of Bangladesh in 2019 was 433 kWh (one third of India), which is lower than Pakistan (557 kWh for 2020).

Our main industry, the readymade garments do not require much electricity, our other industries are mainly related to produce consumer goods for internal consumption or export also do not require electricity on a scale what China or India need for their extraction of minerals on a scale of hunderds of million tons. Our most of the steel comes from scrapping of ships, not by smelting iron. Furthermore, Due to our climate, we do not need central heating(like China) and require less AC(vast part of India and Pakistan experience 50 degree celsius in summer, for our's, it rarely touch 40 degree). So our household electricity consumption is also bound to be lower than those countries. So we can not compare one to one basis across the countries. Singapore has per capita half electricity consumption compared to Finland despite Singapore being twice as rich compared to Finland and has much more diversified economy. The reason is simple, Finland is a very cold country, while Singapore is warm, tropical.

 

[Bilal9]

@Homo Sapiens bhai apnar jukti manlam tobey amar duita kotha chhilo.

Our main industry, the readymade garments do not require much electricity, our other industries are mainly related to produce consumer goods for internal consumption or export also do not require electricity on a scale what China or India need for their extraction of minerals on a scale of hundreds of million tons.

You are right that in that it SEEMS that Apparel making does not require much electricity - however there are several things to consider.

I am quite bad at calculations but I will submit a few thoughts for your consideration.

The average clutch motor (low power) for sewing machines uses 223 watts per hour. Like these Juki ones.

Let's say we have 500 of these machines in a medium sized factory (Bangladeshi factories are larger in scale than any in the subcontinent) running at 50% duty cycle for two X 8 hour shifts X 30 days X 12 months. That is your annual megawatt electricity consumption for that factory (321 Megawatts per annum).

That is a very conservative estimate - the sewing machines run much more that at 50% duty cycle and often during times of rapid fulfilling of orders, the machines are run at three shifts, not two.

Am I off the mark? Maybe - but please show me if I am.

223X500X0.5X2X8X30X12 = 321.12 Megawatts per year (just sewing)

So - the story does not end there. Brittanter iti ekhanei noi.

You have some very heavy electricity users in the washing plant (large washers, electrically heated typically) and of course fabric cutting machines and electric ironing machines. Not to mention the igniters and control mechanisms of the boilers etc. (even if those boilers are run by gas).

So this is just sewing and finishing operations to just make apparel market-ready .

Weaving, Carding, spinning, yarn dying (and knitting in case this is a socks, undershirt or sweater factory) are all electrically run operations too. Very heavy machines at that (Air jet and Waterjet looms these days but even more electricity for conventional electric looms).

Textile industry in general are not say, any less users of electricity than say shipbuilding. It just seems that way because the electricity is not used by heavy electrical motors or hoists etc. like heavy industry.

But the balance of consumption is rapidly made up by sheer numbers of sewing machines instead of a few machines driven by say, 200 or 400 HP electric motors.

So our household electricity consumption is also bound to be lower than those countries. So we can not compare one to one basis across the countries.

I agree with you.

I see the use of kitchen electrics going up very, very soon, which means in less than five years, our consumption will go up quite a bit due to popularization of kitchen electrics and other household use.

In the villages, back about ten years ago, no one knew what a blender was. Now even roadside stands and almost every well-to-do village kitchen has one. In most case these are local made and can be bought anywhere (1 kWh each). Irons are every where, those also use 2 kWh each.

Singapore has per capita half electricity consumption compared to Finland despite Singapore being twice as rich compared to Finland and has much more diversified economy. The reason is simple, Finland is a very cold country, while Singapore is warm, tropical.

Home heating and HVAC are often run either by fuel oil furnaces or gas in cold countries. The share of electrically heated furnaces are quite small.

Even in California, where it rarely drops below 5 degrees Celsius (40 F) - most people use gas for heating in the winter, which is a lot cheaper than using electricity.

So - my take on this is that while household usage and weather (home/office heating) have quite significant bearing on heavy use of electricity, the major portion of electrical consumption per capita still comes from industrial usage of electricity, which means level of industrialization.

Please see the sector-wise usage below, I don't know if you'll agree with me if we have significant money sunk in industrial investments in these sectors. My take would be that these sectors are still quite nascent in Bangladesh (except maybe fertilizers). It is generally accepted that Iron and steel make up only 20% of total electricity consumption.