Electricity sector in Bangladesh

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

Electricity sector in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's energy infrastructure is quite small, insufficient and poorly managed. The per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh is considered low by global standards. Noncommercial energy sources, such as wood fuel, animal waste, and crop residues, are estimated to account for over half of the country's energy consumption. Bangladesh has small reserves of oil and coal, but very large natural gas resources. Commercial energy consumption is mostly natural gas (around 66%), followed by oil, hydropower and coal.

Electricity is the major source of power for most of the country's economic activities. Bangladesh's total installed electricity generation capacity (including captive power) was 15,351 MW as of January 2017.[1] As of 2014, only 62% of the population had access to electricity with a per capita availability of 321 kWh per annum. Problems in the Bangladesh's electric power sector include corruption in administration, high system losses, delays in completion of new plants, low plant efficiency, erratic power supply, electricity theft, blackouts, and shortages of funds for power plant maintenance. Overall, the country's generation plants have been unable to meet system demand over the past decade.

On 2 November 2014, electricity was restored after a day-long nationwide blackout. A transmission line from India had failed, which "led to a cascade of failures throughout the national power grid," and criticism of "old grid infrastructure and poor management." However, in a recent root-cause analysis report the investing team has clarified that fault was actually due to Lack in electricity management & poor Transmission & Distribution health infrastructure that caused the blackout.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Bangladesh