History

At the time of partition of Indo-pak sub-continent, in the year 1947 when the British colonial rulers left, power generation and distribution of this part of the country were in the hands of some private companies. The power supply to then 17 provincial districts was within the township in a limited way. The generation voltage was 400 volts. Power used to be supplied to most of the districts during nighttime only. Only exception was Dhaka City where power used to be supplied by two 1500 kW generators and the generation voltage was 6600 volts and this was the highest supply voltage. There was no long distance transmission lines. Besides power used to be generated by some industries (tea, sugar and textiles) and railway workshops. Dhakeswari Cotton Mills, Pahartali Railway workshop, Saidpur Railway workshop and Sugar Mills were amongst them. In aggregate the generation capacity of the country was 21 MW. The generation capacity of the power utility companies together was only 7 (seven) MW and there was no transmission system.

East-West Interconnector across River Jamuna

In 1948, Electricity Directorate was created in order to plan and improve power supply situation. In 1959, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was created and the power sector really started working satisfactorily. In 1960, Electricity Directorate was merged with WAPDA. The basic philosophy was to give more autonomy to an organization for development of this basic infrastructure. At that time relatively higher capacity plants were built at Siddhirganj, Chittagong and Khulna (highest plant size was only 10 MW Steam Turbine at Siddirganj). At the same time Kaptai dam was under construction under Irrigation department. Unit size of Kaptai was 40 MW, which for that time was considered to be a large power plant. Side by side construction of Dhaka-Chittagong 132 KV transmission line was in progress. Construction of Kaptai dam and commissioning of Dhaka-Chittagong 132 KV transmission line in the year 1962 may be taken as milestone of power development of this country.

In 1972, after the emergence of Bangladesh through a bloody War of Liberation as an independent state, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) was created as a public sector organization to boost the power sector.

During mid 1970s government emphasized on the rural electrification for achieving a desirable social upliftment in the country. A different approach and a new model was considered for undertaking a comprehensive scheme. Thus the Government created Rural Electrification Board (REB) in October 1977. Later in 1991 Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) was created basically to operate and develop distribution system in and around Dhaka (including the metropolitan city) and bring about improvement of customer service, collection of revenue and lessen the administrative burden of BPDB.

Kaptai dam

Public investments and state ownership have been the traditional means to exercise control over the electricity sector. Government regulated the natural monopoly of power supply primarily to protect the consumer’s interest. The situation is fast changing. Structural changes are taking place and new corporate characters are emerging. The gradual expansion of the infrastructure has also been justified by the need for realizing social goods relating to rural electrification and low cost electricity supply to the public.

As on June 2006, in FY 2006, BPDB has total installed capacity of 5245 MW at 103 units (BPDB 3985 MW at 66 Unit and IPP (mixed) 1260 MW at 37 units) of  Power Plants located at different parts of the country. The main fuel used for power generation is indigenous gas. Total 15,417 Gwh gross energy was generated in the public sector power plant under BPDB. In addition, total 8286 Gwh  of energy was purchased by BPDB from Independent Power Producers (IPP) in the private sector. The maximum demand served during peak hours is 4130 MW in September 17, 2007. The transmission network of BPDB (now PGCB) is 3919 route km long comprising 230, 132 and 66 KV lines. The total numbers of grid sub-stations are 7 (total 93 including PGCB & Others) and the total capacity is 13,309 MVA as on .

In FY 2007-08, BPDB had about 15,094 employees of which 2,476 were of supervisory level (holding positions of sub-assistant engineer or higher or equivalent) as on 05/06/2008.