Bangladesh to phase out diesel power plants

• 1 year, 5 months ago (2022-12-05)
• David Flin

Asia 850 Oil 17

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Nasrul Hamid, the Bangladesh State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral resources has announced that the Bangladesh Government has decided to shut all diesel-run power plants by June 2023. He said: “Power plants that run on other types of oil will also be phased out over the next two to three years. However, dual-fuel plants running on gas and oil will remain in operation.”

At present, Bangladesh has 12 diesel-fired power plants with a combined capacity of around 1 GW, mostly owned by private companies. These power plants entered the power generation system on a 3-5 year rental. However, in the last decade, plants have secured multiple extensions.

Nasrul Hamid said: “Whatever and how many plans we are making – both short-term and long-term – our main issue is whether it is less costly energy or not.” He also said: “Whether or not prices will be increased is not the issue. The issue is whether the transition is affordable. It has to be lower cost affordable energy to the consumers, emitting less carbon within that.”