Good to see the January deals struck with India over power import gathering some steam finally. Our soporific administration would have almost led someone to believe they had been quietly forgotten over the last six months. But the inking of the specific, 35-year contract between our Power Development Board and the Power Grid Corporation of India to import 250 megawatts of electricity from our neighbours offers encouragement that there was actually substance behind the pomp and pageantry surrounding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi.
Now, many observers would point our 250 megawatts is actually a pittance in this day and age, and by the end of 2012, when it is expected to be part of the national grid, our electricity demand will have increased further. This is not entirely without any basis in fact. But these observers fail to acknowledge the quite desperate situation in our energy and power sector at the moment. Round about 1500 megawatts is a good figure as a measure of our daily shortfall, and although the government has revealed very ambitious plans to increase generation capacity to above 9000 megawatts within 2016, the historic incapacity of our successive governments to make any good in this sector means we should probably not rely on this before we actually see some results start materialising.
Even resorting to the far more expensive but apparently expedient rental power plants, the first of which were slated to come on board in July, have failed to ease our plight. Within this context, we can do with every megawatt we can manage. And so it must be viewed positively that there is a provision for us to import the said amount, as there is no telling that we won't need it.
We would have preferred the transmission tariff to be set out in the contract signed (it is to be fixed later by the Energy Regulatory Commission of West Bengal), but what is really good about the deal signed is that it also provides for Bangladesh to eventually start exporting electricity to India. That reflects a confidence within Bangladeshi circles that we can eventually attain the kind of position necessary to do that. But why it really fills the heart with optimism is that this may just be the first concrete step towards a regional power-sharing mechanism between the countries of South Asia. It is an idea that has been floating in the background of diplomatic exchanges between countries like India, Bhutan, Nepal and ourselves for a number of years now. The deal signed this week may finally set the idea on its way to becoming reality.
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