Survey finds 87% consumers satisfied with power supply

Around 87 percent people are satisfied with the power supply situation in the country, according to a survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics or BBS.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 Jan 2018, 03:10 PM
Updated : 22 Jan 2018, 03:14 PM

Also, almost 80 percent of the people have confidence in power system development plan undertaken by the government, finds the survey conducted with the support by the Bangladesh Energy and Power Research Council.

The survey findings were released at a press briefing at the Bidyut Bhaban on Monday.

In the survey, only 5.6 percent respondents said they were not satisfied with development measures taken by the government while 14.7 percent said they were 'not sure.'

According to the findings, a total of 11.2 percent respondents said they were 'very satisfied', 48.8 percent 'satisfied' and 29.9 percent 'somewhat satisfied'. Around 13.1 percent said they were not satisfied.

The survey was conducted between October 2016 and February 2017. There were a total of 19,600 respondents who were asked six questions about the electricity supply.

To bring a balance in the study, some 9,927 were surveyed during the summer while the rest 9673 during the winter.

"The level of satisfaction varied in the summer and winter," BS Roy, a director at the national statistical agency, said at the briefing.

Prime Minister's Energy Affairs Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury thanked the BBS for conducting the survey on mobile, instead of going for the conventional method of study.

"The purpose of the survey was to understand the people's perception about the government’s initiative on the development of power sector," he said.

"In the past nine years, we managed to make electricity available to 90 percent of the people, but the important thing is what the people are thinking about it," he said.

Since 2009, a total of 9,254 MW electricity has been added to the national grid with additional 87 new plants raising the power generation to over 16,000 MW.

The government plans to raise the capacity to 24,000 MW by 2021 and 40,000 MW by 2040.

Power Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus told the media that the government would invest around $15 billion in next three years.