Kaptai Hydropower Plant has five units with a total generating capacity of 242 MW. Due to fuel shortage in the latter half of 2022, all units were kept operational during the peak season, resulting in a record low in the lake during the dry season this year. As a result, the electricity department has been able to generate only 25 MW of electricity with a single unit. However, the amount of water in Kaptai Lake has increased due to a week-long rain and the mountain runoff coming down from the upstream.
According to the sources of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), only 25 megawatts of electricity was produced by a single unit of hydropower plant during the dry season. Due to rains in the hilly areas for a week, the generation was slightly increased to 30-35 MW. However, a total of 67 MW electricity generation has been started by starting two units from Monday afternoon. The power department has said that if the rainfall is regular, then the remaining units will be started gradually and the maximum level of production is targeted.
It is known that as of the fiscal year 2021-22, the cost of electricity generation per unit or per kilowatt of gas-based power plant is 3.46 BDT, the cost of each unit of coal-based power plant is 9.17 BDT and the production cost of furnace oil is 22.10 BDT. Whereas the cost of generating electricity per unit of Kaptai hydropower station is only 0.35 to 0.40 BDT (subject to generating electricity by keeping all units operational).
Bangladesh should move more towards generating hydroelectricity from water sources.
Comment here