Bangladesh’s energy overcapacity drives up costs and subsidies
Energy
Underutilized plants draw expensive capacity payments, affecting bills
A Bangladeshi government review found between 7.7 gigawatts and 9.5 GW of stranded or structurally underutilized capacity, and it estimated that stranded capacity alone could cost up to 165 billion taka ($1.33 billion) a year through capacity payments. © Getty Images
DHAKA — Bangladesh’s energy overcapacity is keeping the cost of electricity high and inflating the government’s subsidy bill, even as consumers face higher prices after recent hikes, due to payments to unused power plants.
