Bangladesh garment industry to install 1,000MW power plants

The electricity crisis has prompted the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to install their own power plants with a total capacity of 1,000 MW.

The demand for electricity in the readymade garment sector sector is around 720MW, according to BGMEA president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin.

“Despite improvement in the power supply, we’re facing 3-4 hours of power outage per day, which is affecting our production,” he said.

Mohiuddin said that they had discussions on the issue with the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources several times, but have not yet received any response to their proposal. On July 24, Prime Minister’s Office also discussed the issue.

“We’ll be able to supply additional electricity to the national grid after meeting our demand if the government allows us to set up the plants,” he said. “The plants would be of 50-100MW each subject to government approval.”
He said BGMEA is ready tomobilise necessary fund for the power plants proposed to be installed under public private partnership initiative.

A consultant team of BGMEA conducted a feasibility study in this regard across the country. “A technical and financial proposal would be submitted as soon as the initial proposal is accepted,” said the BGMEA president.

Around 4,000 RMG units out of 5,300 were now operating across the country to make it the highest export earning sector of the country.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is supplying an average of 4,700MW electricity against the requirement of over 6,500MW across the country.