22pc hike at retail, 18pc at bulk level proposed; hearing starts today at BERC
Sharier Khan
The
country's power utilities are seeking a massive hike in electricity
tariff as they continue to incur losses due to ever increasing use of
costly imported petroleum which has seen a steep fall in global rates
recently.
The utilities have asked Bangladesh Energy Regulatory
Commission (Berc) to approve 18 percent hike for bulk power and 22
percent for retail. The five-day hearing of the petition begins today.
According
to the Power Development Board (PDB), the cost of per kilowatt hour (or
a unit) power now stands at Tk 6.10. But it is sold to various
distributors like Desco at the rate of Tk 4.7 per unit. The PDB is
asking the Berc to allow this rate to be raised to Tk 5.55 /unit and the
remaining losses of Tk 4,000 crore a year will be borne by the
government as subsidy.
Following the PDB's proposal, the power
distributors also proposed that the Berc increase the average retail
price to Tk 7.47 /unit from the present average of Tk 6.10 /unit. The
retail price is charged under various slabs to encourage low use of
power at individual user level.
This means the consumers' monthly power bill may shoot up significantly and affect their family budget.
According
to the PDB, the country's power generation and consumption has jumped
by 12 percent last year from the previous year. “We sold 4,000 crore
units of power in 2013-14 which is up by 400 crore units from the
previous year,” said a PDB official.
This additional new
electricity mostly came from fuel based plants and another part came
from a new source -- imported power from India. The imported power costs
around Tk 7 per unit whereas the gas based power costs Tk 2.5 to Tk 3.5
per unit.
This
has imposed additional financial burden on the power board as well as
the government that annually gives a subsidy of around Tk 6,000 crore.
“As
per the current international oil price, the price of diesel should be
Tk 26 per litre. But we are buying it for Tk 60 from Bangladesh
Petroleum Corporation to supply that to the power companies,” said a
competent source.
Accordingly, use of petroleum in power generation has gone up to 28 percent from 17 percent in last one year.
Power generated by petroleum typically costs three to six times higher than gas fired electricity.
The
BPC earlier told The Daily Star that the company was making profits
after many years due to global price cut of petroleum. The government
has no plans to slash the internal petroleum price.
On the other
hand, use of gas, the country's cheapest primary fuel, in power
generation has gone down significantly because the government could not
increase gas supplies for power generation.
Years ago, natural
gas fired more than 90 percent power plants of the country. In 2011-12,
its share dropped to 77 percent and in 2013-14 it plummeted to 62
percent.
“Even the new 337 megawatt Meghnaghat dual fuel [can run
on either gas or diesel] power plant that began partial operation last
year is running entirely on diesel,” said the source. “If they could
provide us with gas, we would have saved a lot of money.”
The
picture may change this year because US energy giant Chevron has revved
up gas production from its Bibiyana gas field from October last year. A
part of this extra 300 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas would be
used for generation of about 800 MW power, replacing the ongoing
operation of the oil based rental power plants.
