LOSSES in power transmission that increased for the second consecutive year in the 2024 financial year are worrying especially in that there is a forecast of further increase for the next few years. What is further worrying is that the losses take place because of a mismatched expansion of the power and industrial sectors. Such transmission losses in the past financial year caused the loss of electricity worth more than Tk 32 billion. And, the loss is, unfortunately, passed on to the consumers in the form of increased tariff. In about a decade and a half, major power plants were built far away from the capital city, where electricity is consumed most because of industrial activities having largely been concentrated around Dhaka. Such a situation necessitates electricity to be transmitted over distances up to 500 kilometres. Power is transmitted to Dhaka and neighbouring areas from as far as the Matarbari plant in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, the Payra plant in Patuakhali, the Rampal plant at Mongla or the Adani plant in Jharkhand in India. Although losses in distribution are reported to be decreasing, transmission losses in the 2024 financial year increased, as Power Grid Company鈥檚 annual report that was partially released says, to 3.13 per cent from 3.07 per cent in the 2023 financial year and 2.89 per cent in the 2022 financial year.
Whilst the global average of power system loss, the combined losses of power transmission and distribution, is about 8 per cent, the system loss of Bangladesh stood at 10.06 per cent in the 2024 financial year. A ranking Power Grid Company official says that the transmission loss is unlikely to go down; it would, rather, increase in future. Transmission loss in Bangladesh earlier was low as power generation centred around Dhaka until the latest bout of expansion that began in 2009 and areas far away from Dhaka remained out of grid in the absence of transmission coverage. The loss, which is the amount of electricity lost during the supply of power from generation points to consumers, is caused in the form of heat as electricity travels through wire resisting the current. The greater the length of the transmission line, the more the loss. In the 2024 financial year, Power Grid Company received 92,900 million units of power from generation points and sold 89,996 million units. Experts say that the use of substandard machinery leading to sudden shutdown of the plants could be another reason for the increase in transmission loss. And, some new plants such as the Rampal plant have already started running into trouble because of its frequent unscheduled and forced shutdown. Experts also think that widespread power theft, often with the connivance of power sector employees, could also be the third reason for the transmission loss.
The overall power system loss remains 2 per cent above the global average and this is bad for the economy that is already considered fragile. The government should, therefore, deal with the issues of power transmission and focus on building a sustainably reliable power system.
