The government is likely to cut power and energy budget by Tk 45.02 billion in Fiscal Year 2024-25 to Tk 303.17 billion compared than the current fiscal year 2023-24.
“Considering the importance of power and energy sector, I propose an allocation of Tk 30,317 crore in FY2024-25, the allocation for this sector was Tk 34,819 crore in FY2023-24,” Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali said in his budget speech on Thursday.
He said the power generation capacity has increased six times to 30,277 MW in the last 15 years. The rate of beneficiaries of electricity has increased by four times and as a result 100 percent of the population of Bangladesh has been brought under the coverage of electricity, the minister said.
Already, in fulfillment of its pledge, the government has brought 100 percent of
the population under the electricity coverage and plans have been taken to increase the power generation capacity to 40,000 MW by 2030 and 60,000 MW by 2041.
There are plans to increase the power transmission lines to 24 thousand circuit kilometers by modernizing the grid.
In 2009, the power generation capacity was only 4,942 MW, which has now increased to 30,277 MW (including the captive and renewable energy). Currently, 27 power plants with a capacity of 9,144MW are under construction.
Per capita power generation increased from 220 KWh to 602 KWh, according to him. Following the construction of 7,246 circuit-km of transmission lines in the last 15 years, the total number of transmission lines has increased to 15,246 circuit-km. The total length of distribution lines stands at 6.43 lakh km. Electricity distribution system loss has been decreased from 14.33 percent in 2009 to 7.65 percent in 2023.
As part of the long-term master plan for power generation, a plan has been adopted to import about 9,000 MW of electricity from neighbouring countries by 2041 under regional and sub-regional cooperation programmes and a target of 40 percent of the total power generation from renewable energy has been set. 1,160 MW of electricity through grid interconnection and 1,600 MW from coal-based power plants are being supplied from India to the national grid of Bangladesh, he said.
Considering the importance of renewable energy in building a developed, prosperous, smart and sustainable Bangladesh by 2041, “I am proposing a special allocation of Tk 1:00 billion to encourage its development and use.
In January 2009, our gas production was 1,744 million cubic feet per day, which has now increased to about 2,100 million cubic feet, he informed.
Besides, about 1,000-1,050 million cubic feet of imported LNG is being added to the national grid daily, the finance minister also informed.
About 14 million tons of coal has been extracted from Barapukuria coal mine till January 2024. The extracted coal is being used in Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant to generate electricity.
Natural gas accounts for 54 to 59 percent of the country’s total commercial fuel. Currently, the number of discovered gas fields is 29, of which 20 are in production. BAPEX plans to drill and work-over 48 wells under Petrobangla between January 2023 and December 2025 to explore and extract oil/gas in onshore areas to meet the increasing gas demand of the country.
It is to be noted that since February 2014, a total of 49 wells (12 exploration, 06 development and 31 work-over wells) have been completed by BAPEX.
Without impairing the interests of Bangladesh and making the existing ‘Offshore Model- PSC 2019’ more attractive in the light of production-sharing agreements of various neighbouring countries Bangladesh Offshore Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC)- 2023 has been formulated. Under this contract, ‘Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round-2024’ has been started to recruit international companies for oil and gas exploration and extraction in 09 blocks of shallow sea and 15 blocks of deep sea. It is expected that PSCs for deep and shallow seas will be signed by December this year.
“Considering the importance of extracting marine resources and its fair use, I am proposing to allocate Tk 1:00 billion for research and development activities in this sector,” according to finance minister.
Imported LNG is being supplied to the national grid from two floating LNG terminals (FSRU) installed in the deep sea at Moheshkhali area of Cox’s Bazar, each terminal having re gas power of 500 MCF per.
Besides, another floating LNG terminal with a daily supply capacity of 600 million cubic feet of LNG is being set up in Moheshkhali area. Moreover, contract signing is underway to supply 500 million cubic feet of LNG per day to the Payra port area. Setting up a land-based LNG terminal with a capacity of 1,000 million cubic feet per day is also underway at Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar, the finance minister informed.
To strengthen the energy security of the country, activities have been undertaken to increase the storage capacity of fuel oil to 60 days instead of 45 days. In FY 2008-09, the storage capacity of fuel oil in the country was 8.94 lakh metric tons. In FY2022-23 it increased to about 14 lakh.
To increase the refining capacity of Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) from 15 lakh metric tons to 45 lakh metric tons to meet the fuel oil demand of the country ERL Unit-II project has been taken up, the finance minister said at his budget speech.
