Lighting the Way : Achievements, Opportunities, and Challenges in Bangladesh's Power Sector
The report surveys the challenges facing Bangladesh's power sector today and makes recommendations for consideration by national policy makers. Its starting point is the Government's goal of universal access to electricity by 2021, when B...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936461540318296226/Lighting-the-Way-Achievements-Opportunities-and-Challenges-in-Bangladeshs-Power-Sector http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30896 |
| Summary: | The report surveys the challenges facing
Bangladesh's power sector today and makes
recommendations for consideration by national policy makers.
Its starting point is the Government's goal of
universal access to electricity by 2021, when Bangladesh
completes 50 years of independence. Bangladesh can justly be
proud of its progress in providing power to its people over
the past decade. Generation capacity has steadily grown from
5.5 GW in 2009 to more than 13 GW in 2017—an increase of 140
percent. Starting from levels of access to electricity below
50 percent, today access is around 80 percent, with a
globally recognized off-grid rural Solar Home System (SHS)
program contributing almost 14 percent of that total. Sector
performance is better than that of larger countries in the
South Asia Region on key dimensions—distribution and
transmission losses (together around 14 percent) and
collection efficiency (above 90 percent). Bangladesh was an
early mover in initiating private power generation in the
late 1990s. The independent power producer (IPP) contracts
awarded at that time through a transparent competitive
process brought it what remains even today some of the
lowest cost power in South Asia. Power imports from India
commenced in 2013 and are set to grow—they are a critical
element of the Government's strategy to supplement
domestic generation with other sources of supply. The
country has also demonstrated impressive mobilization and
institutional capacity in selected agencies, which it can
leverage in its quest to rapidly achieve middle-income status. |
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