Power outages beginning to decrease 

After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued directives to this effect, the power supply situation in the country has begun to improve.

Ship from Indonesia with 50,000 tons of coal arrives at Chattogram Port to supply Rampal Power Plant's Unit-1, which has a 660MW capacity. About 26,620 metric tons of coal have been delivered.

Furthermore, another ship with the same capacity is on its way to Bangladesh.
On June 15, three more vessels carrying a total of 60,000 metric tons of coal for a power plant sponsored by S Alam will arrive in Chattogram.

Later this month, a coal-laden ship will also arrive in the country to supply the Payra Power Plant.

Thus, I can assure you that the power supply crisis is gradually being over....it'll be fully over within two weeks," Md Mahbubur Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), told the Daily Sun on Saturday.

He also noted that gas supplies to efficient power plants have been significantly increased, bringing generation to 6,600MW from 1,1500MW.

According to the BPDB chairman, "we've taken initiative to increase production from gas-based combined cycle power plants like Bibiyana-3 and Bhola Nutun Power Plant," with the possibility of increasing production by an additional 2,000-2,500MW if more gas becomes available.

In addition, he said, the initiative would lead to an increase in generation from fuel-based power plants.

"We've taken steps to increase supply from Adani power plant as well as from S Alam power plant," Mahbubur continued.

According to him, the immediate initiative has resulted in an increase of 400-500MW of electricity being added to the national grid.

If the current crisis surrounding the opening of LCs for fuel imports for electricity can be resolved, the power supply will increase, according to the BPDB chairman.   He acknowledged that BPDB is struggling under the weight of Tk 360 billion in unpaid bills from public and private electricity purchasers.

Though ships are arriving with coal from Indonesia to feed the 660 MW Unit-1 of Rampal Power Plant at full capacity, Engineer Sayeed Akram Ullah, managing director of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Plant, said that Tk 1,800 crore in arrears remains as a concern.

He stated, "We have to immediately pay Tk 5 billion to IDC," with the rest of the payment to be cleared soon to ensure the uninterrupted flow of electricity.

At present, the unit generates 400 MW of electricity, necessitating daily coal consumption of about 3,000 tons.