Cancelling power agreements with India is not easy: Rizwana

Adviser to ministry of environment, forest and climate change Syeda Rizwana Hasan said intermitting the power agreements with India is not easy.  

She told reporters at the secretariat on today, adding: “Getting rid of those agreements will be very costly.”

Terming those agreements with various Indian groups including Adani as unequal, she said: “There is a need to review the agreements in the energy sector.”

“Steps must be taken to reduce energy consumption and private industries will be asked to use renewable energy,” she furthered.

The adviser also said that they are to scrutinize if agriculture and auto-rickshaws can be run with solar energy. Because of unequal agreements, Bangladesh has to borne unusual costs, she continued.

Energy expert and professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Dr M Tamim said: “The base load is 7000 megawatts. There is no oil-based power plant. Our base load during the summer is 13,000 megawatts. The maximum demand is 17,000 megawatts. We have to pay capacity payment.”

Dr M Tamim said: “The distribution system should be designed according to the district-wise demand. Five to six thousand megawatts more electricity is consumed due to fans and ACs. Politicians are not very interested in saving electricity.

He also said, we need to plan now about what the electricity sector will be like in the next 5 to 6 years. We need to decentralize the electricity distribution sector.