Balancing the Energy Trilemma in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, being a lower middle income country is struggling to balance the energy trilemma and energy governance simultaneously.  This is also reflected from the Energy Trilemma Index 2016 released by the World Energy Council, a UN accredited global energy body where Bangladesh secured 111 positions among 125 countries. Energy trilemma is often termed as energy triangle which denotes balance among i) energy security and accessibility to energy, ii) affordability or economics and iii) decarbonisation or climate change mitigation. Some author describes this as interplay between carbon emissions, the security of energy supply and energy costs. However, these three horns have repulsion against each other and that is why balancing them is quite challenging. Particularly it is exigent for Bangladesh to ensure equilibrium among these aspects in producing high range of electricity to mitigate the huge amount of deficiency. Nonetheless, such transformation can only be achieved through effective energy governance.  

Photo: The Daily Star

According to International Energy Agency (IEA) the concept of security of energy supply or energy security mean the incessant availability of energy resources at an affordable cost. Although Bangladesh is a naturally resourceful country considering natural gas and coal specially but due to lack of adequate technical expertise it cannot ultilise its resources in generating energy. That is why it is highly dependent on fuel importation from overseas. Nonetheless, energy security is entwined with national security also. National security may be compromised for disrupted supply of energy. It may bring heavy consequence for Bangladeshi national security. Therefore, conservation of national energy resources and sustainable use of them is essential to diminish the national security dilemma.

However, accessible energy is a potential tool to empower mass people. Here comes the question of universal access to energy. According to World Bank data more than one-third populace of the country have no access to electricity yet. One the contrary, demand is escalating everyday while supply is not uninterrupted due to many factors including shortage of fuel, power scarcity, old supply line etc. Although situation is far more better now because of the initiatives taken by the current government. However, none of those initiatives can ensure minimum balance among those triangles rather some power projects are highly criticised which neglected all these angles. Moreover, most of the power plants use fossil fuels like natural gas or oil as the major primary energy sources instead of diversified low carbon primary sources e.g. solar, wind, tidal, hydro, biomass etc. Massive use of natural gas alone (almost 85%) in energy sector is another threat to energy security. All these contributed to poor access to energy. Although the government has initiated giant project for nuclear power plant but there is also safety concern. Hence this is high time to focus more on eco friendly renewable energies and ensure good governance in dealing with these.

Then the question of economics will come to intervene. The government has frequently increased the price of basic household energy like gas and electricity last couple of years even in contravention of law which ultimately diminish the affordability and accessibility as well. For this reason, despite of having power supply marginal people are become unable to afford that costly energy for their livelihood. This is another challenge for Bangladesh to make energy affordable to all. Accountable and transparent government machineries relating to power sector and effective energy regulatory commission can play vital role to reduce the charge over energy.

High carbon energy sources i.e. fossils are still cheap in comparison with the renewable technologies but it could become more pricy due to global demand. It has also severe impact on environment. So we need to divert our concentration from high carbon to low carbon energy production gradually. Nevertheless, ensuring competitive energy investment policy can play a crucial role in mitigating tension between cost and low carbon energy. Additionally, imposition of heavy duty on high carbon fuels and confirming maximum tax incentives to renewable machineries may bring success to reduce dependency on fossils.

The European Environmental Energy (EEA) opines that energy production and consumption have huge impact upon environment. Reducing carbon emission and preserving environment are equally important in generating affordable energy. The energy sector should be green in compliance with the criteria. Hence, the policy makers have to maintain a harmony among continuous and sustainable energy supply, access and affordability to energy vis-a-vis environmental impact in producing energy.  

Published on the Law & Our Rights page of The Daily Star on 24-10-2017.