Energy Bangla

Staff committee of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission on Sunday said that Rural Electrification Board would have to raise retail power price by 0.27 per cent while Dhaka Electric Supply Company need not increase the price for now.
The committee made the suggestions after it found that the PDB needed to raise the average bulk price of electricity by 5.15 per cent and the PGCB should increase transmission charge only 1.53 per cent.
REB, however, demanded a 25.89 per cent hike in retail power price and DESCO sought a 17.45 per cent hike after the Power Development Board had proposed a hike in the bulk price by 18.12 per cent and the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh demanded a 71 per cent rise in the transmission charge.
The committee also estimated that the REB would be able to make a profit of Tk 364.42 crore and the DESCO would count a profit of Tk 238.4 crore if the BERC did not raise the bulk power price for the distribution utilities.
The BERC began a series of hearings on Tuesday at the TCB Bhaban auditorium in Dhaka on the PDB-proposed hike in the bulk power price by 18.12 per cent, with an annual subsidy requirement of Tk 4,000 crore.
The commission on Sunday concluded the four-day hearings presided over by its chairman AR Khan on the proposals of the power utilities to raise the prices of electricity.
The BERC chairman, however, did not give a specific date for delivering the order in this regard saying that the commission would announce it soon.
The BERC staff committee in its previous observations also said that the three other distribution utilities would not need to raise the prices of electricity if the bulk price was not increased.
The government has been pushing the power utilities for a significant increase in power prices at a time when it is making windfall profits from selling fuel oil for electricity generation following a global fuel price slump.
It is relishing the prospect of making a profit of around Tk 17,000 crore from selling fuel oil on the domestic market in two years.
The government initiated the move to raise power prices after the BERC increased prices by Tk 0.40 per kilowatt-hour or unit on an average with effect from March 1, 2014.
With the March hike, the Awami League-led government, in its two consecutive terms, persuaded the commission into increasing the retail power prices by 54 per cent, up from Tk 4 a unit to Tk 6.15 on an average, in seven phases, since February 2011.
The commission has also increased the bulk price of electricity by 98.31 per cent — from Tk 2.37 to Tk 4.70 a unit — on an average, in six phases, between February 2011 and September 2012.