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The Rural Electrification Board (REB) has planned to overhaul its entire distribution system at a cost of about US$4.0 billion (400 crore) for ensuring smooth power supply across the country, officials said on Saturday.
They said the state-run REB has sought $4.0 billion in external development assistance from development partners to implement the planned work.
The rural electrification authority has sent four separate preliminary development project proposals (PDPPs) to the Planning Commission (PC) for its approval.
The PC has endorsed the PDPPs and requested the Economic Relations Division (ERD) to arrange necessary funds for executing the projects.
"We've sent the PDPPs to the ERD for arranging funds. Soon after getting assurance on the funds from any of the development partners, we'll tell the REB to prepare the DPPs and proceed accordingly," said a senior PC official.
An REB official said they drew up the plan to execute the four projects, each costing more than $1.0 billion, for upgrading the existing electricity distribution system in rural Bangladesh.
Under the projects, "we'll replace almost all the 11-kilovolt (kV) distribution lines with 33kv in the growth centres and important areas of the country, and will also install high-voltage capacity sub-stations at different points," he said.
Besides, the weak electricity distribution lines would be replaced, the REB official added.
The four projects are: "Modernisation of distribution lines under REB (Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions)", "Modernisation of distribution lines under REB (Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions)", "Modernisation of distribution lines under REB (Chattogram and Sylhet divisions)" and "Modernisation of distribution lines under REB (Khulna and Barisal divisions)."
Another REB official said they already discussed with the World Bank (WB) the issue of funding for the projects.
The WB gave assurance of funding modernisation of the REB distribution lines across the country, he added.
"If we can complete our planned projects, the system loss of the REB will come down significantly," the REB official said.
The REB's electricity distribution system accounts for about 10.34 per cent of the system losses on an average a year.
The state-run electrification board has constructed 501,198 km lines under its 80 Palli Bidyut Samities (PBSs).
The REB has about 27,643,176 customers in the village areas across the country.
Currently, the REB is implementing 12 projects at a combined cost of Tk 395.45 billion.
All the projects are aimed at upgrading and expanding the distribution networks for the existing customers and extend power connections to new customers.