The country is to generate a total of 20,000 mega watts of electricity to ensure power for all within the year 2020, prime minister's energy advisor Tawfiq-E_Elahi Chowdhury said Monday.
'Our per capita energy consumption is the least in the region — one-eighth against China and one-thirtieth against developed countries. So, we would be requiring an additional 15,000MW of electricity by 2020 to ensure the service for all,' the adviser said at a seminar on energy development and management.
Tawfiq Elahi said the energy regulations need to be strengthened and more investments from public and private sectors should be poured into the energy sector so the trend of development could be retained in future. He said present government had achieved its target for 5,000MW by 2011, much ahead of the time.
The state minister for energy, Muhammad Enamul Huq, supplemented the Adviser and said, the government would provide all-out supports to the Energy Regulatory Commission to protect consumer rights. He said, the people of the country had been experiencing a better condition on power supply and hoped that it would be improved further next year.
According to the energy ministry, the country has been producing between 4,500MW and 4,900MW in peak hours and load shedding is much more less than that of the last year. The power generation on Sunday was 4,500MW. However, the government has set a target to generate 7,000 MW of electricity by 2013.
Chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Syed Yousuf Hossain, USAID mission director Richard Greene, BERC member Salim Mahmud, chief of party of ICEA project Saeed G Barhaghi, among others spoke on the occasion, co-organised by BERC and USAID.
Source : New Age
