Some of Bangladesh’s largest power plants are set to begin operation by 2024, increasing the country’s installed capacity by nearly a third or over 7,300 MW.
But this addition of new electricity does not look like a good development to economists and power experts worried about most of the electricity remaining unused due to the lack of transmission and distribution networks.
Bangladesh’s power overcapacity could reach 70 per cent soon, power experts predicted, against the fact that the average annual per capita electricity consumption in the country is one of the lowest even among the South Asian nations.
‘It seems that the power overcapacity burden will keep growing until it triggers a total economic collapse,’ said economist Anu Muhammad.
‘A total collapse of the system is inevitable when you keep spending money apparently for no use,’ he said.
Over 6,500 MW of the new capacity to be added over the next two and half years would come from four power plants — 1320MW Rampal power plant, 1600MW Adani Godda power plant, 1224MW Banshkhali power plant and 2400MW Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant.
