No diesel-run power plants from June: Nasrul
04 December 2022
Staff Reporter :
The government has decided to shut down diesel run 1,000 megawatt power plants in the country from June next year except the combined cycle power plants.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said this while addressing a seminar organised by the Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh in the city's Bidyut Bhaban on Saturday.
"It is the main problem now to ensure fuel at a low price. The government, for the country's energy transition, is giving importance to options that are affordable and sustainable. This is why we have decided to stop production at the diesel-run power plants from June next year as it is one of the most expensive methods that we have," he said.
Earlier in July, authorities had suspended operations of diesel-run power plants in a bid to save dollars in the wake of a steep hike in oil and liquid gas prices in the international market.
However, the government was forced to backtrack from this move as frequent load-shedding plagued the country disrupting goods production and daily lives.
The government has taken various steps for the last 6 to 7 months to extract natural gas, Senior Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Division Mahbub Hossain said.
Power Secretary Habibur Rahman said that many under construction power plants are gas-based and such attention should be shifted from gas to other fuels.
"Installation of rooftop solar power should be given more importance and needs to turn it a movement among the people," he observed. The keynote paper was
presented by the Special Assistant of the former caretaker government's chief adviser on Energy Affairs M Tamim in the seminar.
He said that the use of renewable energy should be increased and it won't be wise to let the country's economic growth be hampered due to energy crisis.
"Not only based on the present crisis, planning should be taken by projecting the next 5 to 10 years," he said in his keynote presentation.
