Energy Bangla

The power and energy ministry on Wednesday, in a second phase, decided to ask the government to extend the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act, 2010 by four years, officials said.
In September 2012, the law, which is much known as ‘indemnity act’ for safeguard the actors in power and energy sector involved in awarding contracts without tenders, extended for two years to be expired on October 11 of this year.
The decision came from a meeting with the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid in chair, a power division official said.
Nasrul asked the officials to prepare a proposal in this regard for the approval of the cabinet, he said.
Officials said that the extension of the law was necessary to achieve the power generation target by 2021 as the existing rules were creating obstacles before the quick disposal of the project awarding process.
The law will also provide legal protection to the officials concerned involved in awarding contracts bypassing tender process, they said.
‘It will help us to expedite the implementation of the projects which are stalemated for years,’ the power cell director general Mohammad Hossain told.
Economist and the member secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port Anu Muhammad said that the law would act as a shield to protect the corrupt officials and policymakers.
Under the process, which began in 2010, he said that the authorities concerned explored expensive ways instead of cheaper ones in solving the crisis in the power and energy sector.
On October 12, 2010, the government first enacted the speedy supply law for two years for ‘quick disposal’ of contracts in power and energy sector to meet the demand for power and energy in a short time.
Under the act, the state-run Power Development Board signed 20 contracts to buy power from 15 quick rental and five rental suppliers from their 22 plants with a combined generation capacity of about 2,000MW for three to five years.
It also signed 15 contracts to buy electricity from independent power suppliers from their plants with a combined generation capacity of about 1,000MW under the same act.
In the energy sector, the state-run Petrobangla engaged Russian oil and gas corporation Gazprom to drill 10 gas production oils in different fields suing the speedy supply of power and energy act. It cost Petrobangla around Tk 1,600 crores ($195.5million).
Its subsidiary Gas Transmission Company Limited signed eight deals worth nearly Tk 1,500 crore to set up two gas compressor stations and three gas transmission lines from Ashuganj to Elenga, Bakhrabad to Siddhirganj and Bheramara to Khulna.
Under the same act, Petrobangla also awarded a project to a consortium between Astra Oil and Excelerate Energy to set up a floating terminal at Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar.