The ‘Go Slow’ policy is reintroduced. The government has started following this policy once again in introducing new electricity connection. Though it was declared officially for several times that the country’s production of power is sufficient, in reality, the scenario is not that favorable.
No one can assure a new connection anymore on demand. Regarding this
matter, it was heard that the Power Division has given instructions to
the Power Distribution companies.
Sources confirmed that the authority cannot manage to meet the
cumulative power demand. That’s why the distribution companies are
ordered to hang up the applications.
The installation process of most of the country’s largest power plants
is not quite started yet. Rental and quick rental plants are still
playing the key role in the power sector. In this situation, the
demand for electricity has been increasing each moment. As a result,
the gap between demand and supply is expanding and the ‘Go Slow’
policy is embraced to mitigate that gap as much as possible.
The state minister for Power Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid
said that the coal-fired power plants are planned to come in
production within due time. If all these plans are executed
accordingly, it will be possible to provide electricity to every
household within 2021.
Earlier in 2014, the government had taken the ‘Go Slow’ policy to
recover the demand and supply gap. However, it was not any official
policy though that was being maintained by all the distribution
company. The distribution companies were instructed then by a letter
to go slow and steady for a certain period while giving new
connections to household and industries. However, the government got
back from that ‘Go Slow’ policy after the mentioned time. After two
years, provisionally the government just instructed orally to go in a
slow and steady pace. The electricity demand is relatively lower in
the rural areas and that’s why no such instructions are applicable
there.
There are currently 13 lacs of new application left pending in the
power distribution companies, each praying for a new connection. New
connections are still provided but the application dropping has also
been increasing on the contrary.
If the distribution companies start clearing the pending applications,
the demand will upraise by 1,500 MW more instantly. Meeting that
increased demand with the relatively less supply will only cause the
power outage issue to get bigger. That’s why the ‘Go Slow’ policy has
opted.
Experts of the related fields say that for the time being there is
nothing better a government can do except for going slow. To meet the
ever-growing demand you need an ever enhancing supply, which is
currently unattainable.
Currently, the production is 7 to 7.5 thousand MW while the demand is
in peak. Accepting all the system losses and other losses, in Consumer
levels, there is approximately 6.5 thousand MW of power that can
hardly get through. But at the same time, the demand for power is
8,500 MW which claims that currently there is a deficit of 1,500 MW at
least.