Cost of Electricity Outages in Bangladesh

Division  : Environment Energy

Status : Completed 

Donor/Funder: World Bank  

Duration  :  1998-2000  

Location :  Major Metropolitan cities and regional towns of Bangladesh  

Objectives :The study had two components: (a) on economic and financial impact of electricity outage on industrial and commercial sector; and b) survey on willingness to pay and affordability for the service. The objective of the first component was to provide a reliable quantification of the economic and financial impacts of electricity outages in the country while the objective of the second component was to provide reliable measure of the willingness to pray for electricity.

Methods and Tools: The investigation was carried out through a detailed nation-wide random survey of enterprises belonging to industrial and commercial sectors. A conceptual framework was developed which included trend of power outage, industry related impact of power outage, willingness to pay and economic-wise impact  of power etc.

Results/Output   :The report concluded that nearly a third of the industrial units which have been surveyed undergo load shedding during peak hours of production. On an average, each unit remains closed for about three hours day due to outage electricity. Since, there is a heavy loss in production the industrial sector, revenue generated by BPDB is bound to be less than what has been projected.

The outage problem could be avoided to a large extent, if the management of suppliers could have been made more efficient and accountable. There should be more efficient load management, greater generation of electricity in private sector and greater transparent policy making.

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