No alternative to clean energy transition, but what stands in its way?

A just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy is a must to save the environment, but for now, this is not an official priority.

This is what appeared from a policy dialogue where senior energy officials, experts and stakeholders spoke about the urgency for smooth energy transition, bottlenecks and ground reality.

Energy Secretary Mohammad Saiful Islam, speaking on the issue, explained why issues like corruption, inefficiency in the energy sector overshadow the environmental concerns.

Emphasising the need for taking the right decision at the right time to promote energy transition, he said, "To promote energy transition, decision making and financing are very important. There are many pressure groups in this sector and sometimes they make our work handicapped."

The energy secretary made the remark at a policy dialogue titled "Just Energy Transition in Bangladesh: Challenges and Way Forward" held at The Business Standard's conference room in the capital on Wednesday.

It was jointly organised by ActionAid Bangladesh, The Business Standard, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), and Just Energy Transition Network Bangladesh.

ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir chaired the programme while Shafiqul Alam, IEEFA's lead analyst of energy for Bangladesh, presented the keynote papers.  

Mohammad Saiful Islam said, "Due to rampant corruption in the energy sector, it is very tough to focus on energy transition, but we feel that transition is a must."

Labelling corruption a major problem in the energy sector, the energy secretary also said, corruption in the energy sector is beyond believable adding that "Corruption is not limited to political power but within the people who are working."

Over-dependence on gas for electricity production is creating a gas crisis in the country, said Saiful. "Our 60% of power plants are gas dependent. The over-dependence on gas for producing power is a burden for us and it is fuelling the gas crisis in the country."

Emphasising the need for taking the right decision at the right time to promote energy transition, the energy secretary said, "To promote energy transition, decision-making and financing are very important. There are many pressure groups in this sector and sometimes make our work handicapped."

Addressing the programme, BPDB Chairman Md Rezaul Karim blamed the unrealistic policies and inflated supply-demand projection as the major barrier for holding back energy transition in the country.

He said, "We are now doing the review of the Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP) based on need. There is a gap between the real forecast of consumption and growth. The incoherent demand and generation capacity are major challenges for energy transition."

Rezaul noted that almost all power plants are now running in Free Governor Mode Operation mode and the load curve also became an international standard, which is why industries that are reliant on captive power can easily switch to grid-connected power.

"To promote green energy, we are formulating a policy on solar merchant power plants. Export processing zones and big industries can establish solar-based merchant power plants," he Rezaul.

Despite being the prime agency to promote energy transition in the country from fossil fuel to green energy, the lack of specialised skilled manpower in the structure of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) is failing to contribute to energy transition, said Ratan Kumar Ghosh, chairman of Sreda.

He said, "The individuals who are being deputed to Sreda are non-technical and most of them come from the cadre service. We need specialised, skilled manpower to promote green energy. They came here and after that got transferred to somewhere else, which is hampering our core work of green energy promotion."

"We are creating a new organogram emphasising creating specialised skilled manpower within Sreda," said Ratan.

Former caretaker adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, M Tamim said Bangladesh will go into a massive energy transition is not realistically possible given the volume of fossil fuel-based power plants.

He said, "Around twenty thousand megawatts of installed capacity in the power sector are fossil fuel dependent. The life span of combined cycle power plants is 22 years and coal-based power plants have 25 years. In that equation, we are stuck for at least 20 years in fossil fuel-dependent electricity."

Tamim also said, "We should go for gigawatt-hour production instead of megawatt production. Our green energy contribution in power production is less than 1%. To promote energy transition, we should strike a balance between existing capacity and future consumption projection."

Energy expert Ijaj Hossain said, "We can't supply electricity in the evening peak hour by solar energy. To promote green energy, we can store electricity in batteries and later use it at night."

He added, "To get rid of using expensive fossil fuel-based energy, we should focus on solar energy and increase the use of batteries."

In the keynote paper presentation, Shafiqul Alam, IEEFA's lead analyst of energy for Bangladesh, said to better understand the energy scenario, the government should focus on energy audits so that it can easily locate who is using how much fossil fuel-dependent power. "By energy audit, the government can set a target for consumers to reduce fossil fuel consumption gradually."

Import duty on solar panel materials is hindering the growth of solar power in the country, said Shafiqul, adding that, government reduced the import of inverter dust from 10% to 1% but other tariff-related issues are still in place.

"Sreda is not well equipped to promote green energy and the government should emphasise strengthening this organisation. Financial institutions feel shaky in investing in rooftop solar and solar-based irrigation," he added. 

Rezaul Karim Khan, director (power) of BERC; Abul Kalam Azad, manager (Just Energy Transition) of ActionAid Bangladesh; Wahidur Rahman  Executive Vice President & Unit Head (Technical), Renewable Energy of Infrastructure Development Company Limited (Idcol); M Zakir Hossain Khan, chief executive of Change Initiative; and Mohammad Alauddin, former chairman of Sreda, attended the dialogue while Titu Datta Gupta, deputy editor of The Business Standard, delivered the welcome address.

The programme was also addressed by government officials, NGO leaders, green energy campaigners and executives of financial institutions.