Nat’l committee proposes alternative master plan for power sector

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports on Saturday proposed a draft 25-year master plan for the power sector focusing on natural gas and renewables as an alternative to the government’s Power Sector Master Plan 2016.
The national committee said that if its master plan was adopted, it would significantly reduce the costs of power generation while making the whole system ecologically friendly. 
As opposed to the government’s master plan that ‘has made power generation dependent on imports and foreign debts’, the nation committee said that its plan offered an energy future reliant on national resources only. 
Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club, member secretary of the committee Anu Muhammad said that if the government adopted the committee’s plan, the national power generation capacity could be increased to 91,700 megawatts by 2041, and the projected demand for 245 terawatt-hour electricity by that year would be met. 
‘If the committee’s draft master plan was adopted, real price of electricity could be reduced by 2041 to Tk 5.10 per unit, which is Tk 7.69 lower than the government’s estimate as shown in its plan,’ he said. 
The committee’s three-phased plan suggested gradual transition to renewables like solar, wind, and natural gas, in place of coal, liquefied natural gas and nuclear energy for power generation. 
The committee demanded strengthening of the national capacity for energy extraction and power generation and reducing its dependency on foreign grants and consultancies. Its plan would firmly establish people’s ownership over natural resources and develop national capability, it said.
Anu said that the total expenditure for power generation could be reduced to $110 billion from the government estimated $129 billion in next 25 years by adopting renewable energy-based power generation. 
‘The government is implementing costly projects to make the country highly dependent on power imports as well as to serve interests of local and foreign vested groups,’ he said.
Panel researcher of the committee Mahbub Sumon said that the country could generate more low-cost solar energy through proper utilisation of non-arable land as well as installation of efficient solar panels and energy storing systems. 
Communist Party of Bangladesh president Mujahidul Islam Selim urged the people to support the committee’s plan. He said that the people should oust the government if it continued to implement the financially and ecologically costly plan. 
Ganasanghati Andolan’s chief coordinator Zonayed Saki said that the government was implementing hazardous coal-fired and costly liquefied natural gas-fired power plants, which ‘are destructive to environment and backtracking from modern renewable technologies’.
Left politicians Tipu Biswas, Mushrefa Mishu, Saiful Huq, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology teacher Hasibur Rahman, and professor Sujit Chowdhury, among others, addressed the conference.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net