Local coal for power generation

Editor

THE Power Development Board (PDB) has reportedly proposed last week to form a public limited company to install coal-based power plants in future. According to PDB sources, four mega coal-based power plants having capacity of producing 500 megawatt of electricity each would be established under the supervision of the proposed company by 2014. Several companies have already expressed interest to establish the plants under Public Private Partnership.

The country suffers from a serious shortage of electricity. According to sources, the total generation comes to 3,200mw of electricity against the demand for 4,600mw. The crisis has reached a point of seriously hampering production in mills and factories. Several power plants are reportedly producing electricity less than their capacities. Some others have stopped production due to short supply of gas that fuels 80 percent of power generation. According to a projection, the country will need about 10,000mw and 14,000mw electricity by 2015 and 2020 respectively. But except for limited reserves of gas there is only coal to fuel power plants. So, the proposal for installation of coal-based power plants is a step in the right direction.

It has been reported that PDB would use imported coal to run the proposed plants. Bangladesh has a proven reserve of 2,086 million tons of high quality coal. According to experts, this coal is enough to generate 5,000mw of electricity for upto 90 years. It will also save about US$500 million that the country spends annually to import coal. Petrobangla had in June even proposed to export two lakh tons of coal from Barapukuria due to storage problem. Then what is the reason behind the idea of using imported coal instead of the local coal? The country should go for early extraction of its own coal resources.

Source: http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/11/09/news0028.htm

Date: 09 November 2009, Bangladesh

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