Bangladesh’s power sector is haemorrhaging billions of dollars each year not because of a single policy failure, but due to a toxic combination of excess capacity, onesided contracts, heavy import dependence, weak governance and a sharp depreciation of the taka, sector insiders and analysts say.
the National Review Committee (NRC) recently estimated annual losses in the power sector at around $1.5 billion, largely attributing the damage to unfavorable power purchase agreements. But many energy experts argue that this headline ?gure oversimpli?es a much deeper, long-running structural crisis.
those closely tracking the sector say the losses do not fully re?ect historical realities and cannot be understood without examining how policy priorities shifted after 2015.
until around 2015, Bangladesh struggled with frequent power outages and inadequate generation. Since then, the problem has ?ipped.