Govt to shut down all diesel-run power plants

Special Correspondent: The power department has announced the closure of diesel-based plants due to high production costs. Consumer demand can be met by relying on coal, gas and furnace oil-based electricity.
In July last year, the power generation of all diesel-based plants was stopped as a cost-effective policy. However, they had to return to these centers again in August to deal with the load-shedding situation.
The electricity department does not want to use these plants anymore. It has already been announced that all diesel-based centers will be closed from June onwards. While the Power Development Board (PDB) is selling wholesale electricity at a rate of 7 Tk per unit to the distribution companies, the cost of generating electricity from diesel has been over Tk 35 in the last financial year as well.
In such a situation, the power department decided to shut down the centers dependent on imported energy to save costs and reduce the pressure on the dollar. And besides this decision, coal-based centers like Payra-Rampal-Adani are providing confidence.
Engineer Mohammad Hossain, director general of Power Cell, said, “If we get gas and coal as per the plan, we will not need diesel at the moment.” 6,000 MW plus from gas, and 3,500 MW from coal. The rest will be obtained from liquid fuel furnace oil. From here, we will have about 5,000 megawatts.
Experts see the move away from diesel dependence as a positive because of high production costs. But at the same time, if we cannot ensure sufficient resources of other fuels, there is a danger of increasing the disaster.
Energy expert Professor Dr. Badrul Imam said that in order to keep the electricity situation normal, the first thing to do is to ensure sufficient fuel resources for other power plants. In this case, the gap should be reduced. We need to produce more gas from our gas fields. If gas, coal and solar can produce enough electricity with 3 fuels and keep oil aside, then I think it could be a good approach. And that is how the government should work.
Excluding captive power, the power generation capacity of the country is currently 23 thousand megawatts. Among them, the capacity of diesel-powered power plant is 1 thousand 300 MW.