Bangladesh offers expensive non-stop electricity to industries

Bangladesh has offered uninterrupted power supply to manufacturing and export-oriented firms from June 1 for higher charges.

The power will come from oil-fired power plants, which now remain idle because of the high price of imported oil.

"The move comes to support key industries ... but they must pay more money to access uninterrupted (power) supply," said Syed Yusuf Hossain, chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission.

"It will have no adverse effect on the overall power supply," he told Reuters.

The country suffers daily electricity shortages of up to 1,500 megawatts,

The regulator set the average price at 14.44 taka or 18 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour for the industrial consumers that want to get electric supply round the clock.

Industrial consumers now get electricity, subject to frequent outages, at 5.61 taka per KWh on average.

The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board had proposed the increase to boost production and keep the flow of exports unaffected by power cuts.

It now costs around 16 taka to produce a single unit of electricity in an oil-fired plant, 2 to 3 taka in a natural gas-fired power plant, 5 taka in a coal-fired plant and 1 taka for hydro-power plants, officials said.

Exporters and manufacturers said the rate proposed for uninterrupted power would not be cost effective and urged the authorities to review it.

"The high price of electricity will raise cost of our products and make them less competitive in international markets," said Hossain Khaled, former president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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