Electricity sector in Bangladesh

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Rooppur, Pabna

The utility electricity sector in Bangladesh has one national grid operated by Power Grid Company of Bangladesh with an installed capacity of 25,700 MW as of June 2022. Bangladesh's energy sector is not up to the mark. However, per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh is considered higher than the production. Electricity was introduced to the country on 7 December 1901.

Electricity is the major source of power for most of the country's economic activities. Bangladesh's total installed electricity generation capacity (including captive power) is 25,700 MW. It was 15,351 megawatts (MW) as of January 2017^[2] and 20,000 megawatts in 2018.^[3]

The largest energy consumers in Bangladesh are industries and the residential sector, followed by the commercial and agricultural sectors.^[4]

Bangladesh will need an estimated 34,000 MW of power by 2030 to sustain its economic growth of over 7 percent.^[5]

Problems in Bangladesh's electric power sector include high system losses, delays in completion of new plants, low plant efficiency, erratic power supply, electricity theft, blackouts, and shortages of funds for power plant maintenance. Overall, the country's generation plants have been unable to meet system demand over the past decade.^{[citation needed]}

On the 2nd of November, 2014, electricity was restored after a day-long nationwide blackout. A transmission line from India had failed, which "led to a cascade of failures throughout the national power grid," and criticism of "old grid infrastructure and poor management." However, in a recent root-cause analysis report the investigating team has clarified that the fault was actually due to lack of coordination and poor health of transmission and distribution infrastructure that caused the blackout.^[6][7]

On 4 October 2022, 70–80% of the country's 168 million residence were hit with blackouts and only 45% of residences were restored with power by nightfall. There was a shortage of natural gas because of the 2021–present global energy crisis where 77 natural gas power plants had insufficient fuel to meet demand. The electricity sector in Bangladesh is heavily reliant on natural gas.^[8] The government stopped buying spot price liquefied natural gas in June 2022; they were importing 30% of their LNG on the spot market this year down from 40% last year. They are still importing LNG on futures exchange markets.^[9]