We badly need a comprehensive Power Conservation Act together with supportive plans and policies and their implementation and enforcement
respectively
The unaddressed issue of power conservation
A seminar on Power Quality Management was organized sometime ago. It received less than its due share of attention though it deserved to make headlines all around. This is for the simple reason that we are going through a situation when despite increases in power production we are still not producing enough power to match the total effective demand for the same.
As it is, the present somewhat improved supply position of power--compared to the past--has been achieved by running the quick rental plants at higher costs to keep consumers happy. But as was discussed in the seminar, it could be possible to conserve a good amount of power if we had a sound conservation programme going. The projection is that Bangladeshs power demand would be some 30,000 mw by 2030. But this can be lowered down to 20,000 mw only or it is possible to forego the costs of building plants and incurring related costs of producing about 10,000 mw of power through conserving the same amount. This is the long term view.
A huge amount of electricity is currently wasted from the carefree attitude and instincts of consumers.
Lights and in some cases even air coolers keep on running for hours together and nobody bothers to shut them down. This is because the consumers in many cases have understanding with unscrupulous meter readers. So, they have no concern about bills as the bills would be assuredly shown to be a fixed amount no matter how much they consume. Shopping signboards and bill boards also use up an excess of power and are not regulated to be turned off in the small hours of the night.
After making a start in distributing the energy efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs that uses 75 per cent less power than the traditional incandescent bulbs, the programme appears to be in a limbo. It was also heard that light emitting diode (LED) bulbs considered as four times more efficient than the incandescent ones would be introduced. But no progress in this matter was noted later on.
The plans of overhauling of the old power plants to make them more efficient to produce more power than now at comparatively less costs, are also progressing at a snails pace. But Bangladeshs badly needs a comprehensive Power Conservation Act together with supportive plans and policies and their implementation and enforcement respectively.
