Public hearing on proposed hike in bulk power tariff Wednesday

A public hearing on a proposal for raising the electricity tariff at a bulk level will be held on Wednesday.

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) will hold the hearing at BIAM Auditorium in the capital from 10:30am to 5pm in response to an appeal of the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

The BPDB moved the proposal urging the energy regulator to set the bulk power tariff at Tk 8.58 instead of existing Tk 5.17 per kilowatt hour (each unit).

The BPDB claims in its proposal to the energy regulator that it will incur a loss of Tk 30,251 crore in the current fiscal year if the bulk tariff is not raised.

It attributed to the increasing fuel cost and other soaring expenses for financial losses saying that the production cost of electricity has gone up to Tk 4.24 per unit in 2022 from Tk 2.13 in the fiscal year 2019-20.

Power industry insiders say that it is obvious that if the bulk electricity tariff is raised, it will ultimately push up the tariff at the retail level.

Any rise in bulk tariff will be applicable to the power distribution companies as they are the bulk consumers.

They buy electricity from the BPDB in bulk and then sell it to the public at retail rates. So, the public hearing on retail tariff will come consequently, said an industry insider.

All the state-owned power distribution companies have already submitted their respective proposals to the BERC to raise the power rates at the retail level.

But this time, the BERC is going to hold the public hearing on the bulk tariff proposal, keeping pending the request for raising the retail price.