Bangladesh’s power sector is grappling with the dollar crisis, hindering its ability to leverage the current low coal prices in the international market. The cost of importing coal, including transportation, has significantly reduced to $100-$110 per ton, in contrast to the previous cost of $480 per ton on August 2022. This represents a substantial saving of $370 per ton or 39,590 rupees compared to the previous year’s prices.
The energy cost for coal-fired power generation has dropped below five taka per kilowatt/hour, leading to a decrease in electricity production costs from Tk 17 to Tk 22 per unit by the end of last year. Procuring additional coal is currently challenging due to the scarcity of dollars, despite experts recommending purchasing coal for the next six months.
Coal-fired power plants in Bangladesh require 9.64 tons of coal to operate a one-megawatt plant for 24 hours. The daily coal demand for power plants is now 49,742 tons. The majority of the country’s electricity production, totaling 5,160 megawatts, is derived from coal-fired power plants. Moreover, upcoming power plant projects will increase the country’s coal-fired electricity production to 7,020 megawatts.
Seizing the current favorable coal pricing opportunity could result in substantial cost savings in electricity production. It would also reduce dependence on costly oil-fired power plants, which spend Tk 22.10 paisa per unit of electricity generation.
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