Bangladesh: Payra power plant set to close tomorrow midnight

Bangladesh desk: Amidst a sweltering heatwave and worsening power crisis, Bangladesh’s largest power plant, 1,320MW Payra power plant, is set to shut its operation from tomorrow midnight because of coal shortage induced by a crippling dollar crisis.

The inevitability of the power plant closure has frightened the citizens of densely-populated Bangladesh, who have been in the grip of acute energy crisis and frequent power cuts for almost a year now since the government officially introduced rotating power cuts in July, 2022.

Over the past few days, state minister for power and energy Nasrul Hamid, who in the past year repeatedly assured people of the power situation improving, clarified that the situation was likely to persist for a while.

Overwhelmingly import-dependent Bangladesh has battled a dollar crisis apparently without much success despite accessing an IMF loan, and implementing some austerity measures such as reduction of imports.

The power generation capacity of the Payra power plant halved on May 25 after its first unit worth 622MW was shut down because of fuel crisis as the government’s unpaid fuel bill to the power plant authorities mounted to almost $300 million.

The 622MW second unit of the power plant has been operating at its full capacity during the peak hour, which is 9:00pm, while producing about 400MW during the off-peak hours of the day.

The Power Development Board did not say anything about changing the current pattern of power generation at the power plant until Saturday, the power plant authorities said.

The power plant authorities had allowed the government to have energy bills outstanding for six months, which ended in November since the final energy payment was made, according to the power plant authorities.

The government has, in fact, not paid the fuel bill of the Payra power plant since June 2022 until recently.

So far the government paid $90 million of the outstanding energy bills in the wake of closure of the first unit of the power plant.

The Payra power plant is unlikely to return to operation before the end of June or early July for the time is needed for shipping coal.

At 3:00pm on Saturday, peak electricity shortage at Dhaka Electric Supply Company was recorded at 317MW, which was nearly a fourth of the official power demand of 1,317MW.

Bangladesh has seen a steep rise in electricity demand because of the ongoing heatwave that saw the country’s highest maximum day temperature rise to 40.7C in Rajshahi on Saturday afternoon.

A severe heatwave, which indicates 40C or above day temperature, was sweeping over Rajshahi, Naogaon and Dinajpur districts, the BMD said, warning that the hot weather would likely persist through the next four to five days.

‘Temperature might not increase further but it will likely remain unchanged,’ said meteorologist AKM Nazmul Haque.

A mild-to-moderate heatwave, indicating a day temperature 36C or more, was sweeping Dhaka, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Khulna and Barishal divisions and also the districts of Moulvibazar and Noakhali, according to the BMD.

The capital Dhaka recorded its highest maximum day temperature 36.7C on Saturday.

High humidity, which was almost 80 per cent at 9:00am, intensified the feeling of hot, particularly in cities and towns, which are densely populated and mostly deforested.

The urban poor bear the brunt of heatwave as many of them live in tiny spaces in small houses with very limited access to drinking water.

Many urban people are unable to afford a daily bath, which is essential, particularly for the poor and low-income people, who are often required by their jobs to go outside.

Many people said that power outage with prior notice could have helped them deal with frequent power cuts better, but the power authorities seemed unable to develop a power-cut schedule because of high uncertainty in power generation.

People rushed to buy electric fan, air cooler and install emergency power backup systems because of the power crisis amidst the heatwave, which is threatening their health, particularly the health of children.

With an installed capacity of 24,143MW, excluding captive power, which is about 3,000MW, Bangladesh produced 13,835MW of electricity at peak generation hour at 9:00pm on Friday against the demand for 14,210MW.

The peak power outage of 2,247MW on Saturday was recorded at midday.

Bangladesh’s power overcapacity is straining its economic abilities amidst ongoing dollar crisis, with idle power plants generating massive capacity charges that reached $9 billion over the past decade.

Three phases of electricity price hike since January could not make the situation any better.