Bangladesh buys more power from India, lifts fuel oil use as electricity demand rises

Bangladesh is boosting power imports from India and output from fuel oil-fired power plants in a scramble to meet rising electricity demand as it grapples with constraints on gas supply and coal plant maintenance, industry officials and analysts say. Power imports, mainly from an Adani Power-run coal-fired plant in eastern India, rose 70 percent in the seven months through July and helped satisfy most of the rising demand, government data showed. Natural gas accounted for about two-thirds of Bangladesh's power demand in the decade that ended in 2020, but the country has been boosting power imports and local coal-fired generation due to gas infrastructure challenges and to cut costs. "It's about cost effectiveness, and gas is required for the fertiliser...