The government on Thursday approved the Renewable Energy-Based Commercial Power Generation Policy, 2025 with the aim of promoting private sector investment in the renewable energy sector and making electricity more affordable for consumers.
The advisers鈥� council of the interim government at a meeting at the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office at Tajgaon in the capital Dhaka approved the policy. Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus chaired the meeting.
After the meeting, the chief adviser鈥檚 press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, at a briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital said that under the new policy, private entrepreneurs would be allowed to generate electricity from renewable sources and sell it directly to export-oriented industries at mutually agreed prices.
The government would facilitate this process by allowing commercial power producers and consumers to use its grid transmission and distribution infrastructure in exchange for a specified wheeling charge, he said.
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission will determine the charges for using the transmission lines.
Shafiqul said that the policy marked a major shift from previous arrangements, under which the Power Development Board purchased all electricity from private producers.
He said that going forward, the PDB would be able to buy a maximum of only 20 per cent of its power from private renewable energy producers, while the remaining electricity could be sold directly by the producers to any customer of their choice.
The press secretary said that this was projected to reduce electricity tariffs for both households and industries, while also lowering dependence on imported liquefied natural gas, which currently costs the country hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
He also said that the policy would create a competitive private electricity market based on renewable energy, benefiting export-oriented industries that increasingly require clean energy for production.
The establishment of private merchant power plants is also expected to generate new employment opportunities in the energy sector and stimulate related commercial activities, the press secretary said.
He said that Bangladesh spent Tk聽67,000 crore in subsidies on the power and energy sector in the previous financial year due to loopholes in the previous government鈥檚 policy, making the system financially unsustainable.
To address this, the interim government has approved the new policy aimed at reducing subsidy dependence.
According to the press secretary, the policy is structured into nine chapters and two annexes, providing detailed guidelines for establishing merchant power plants, including procedures, conditions and investor qualifications.
He said that state-owned electricity generation and distribution companies under the Power Division were barred from setting up merchant plants to avoid conflicts of interest, though the other government institutions could partner with private entrepreneurs.聽
Shafiqul said that investors with outstanding liabilities to the government, those declared loan defaulters, or those barred by domestic or foreign authorities would not be eligible to participate in merchant plants.
