Abstract:
In the modern civilisation, power plays a pivotal role in the development of any
country. The growth of virtually all the sectors of economy of a country is closely
related to the uninterrupted power supply. The onward march of human society would
surely hIli through should the power supply remain suspended or interrupted even /Clr
a small li.agment of time.
The per capita consumption of electricity is a yardstick in measuring the progress
report of a country in a given year. In this respect, Bangladesh. compared to other
countries. lags far behind. It is yet to go a long way to reach the standards of
exploitation and consumption of electricity already achieved by developed countries.
In view of the energy resources being scattered. planned development. conservation
and pooling of energy resources and improved technology for commercial
exploitation of energy from the sun, wind, bio-gas and geo-thermal resources can help
meet the growing power demand. The central problem, therefore, is how a country
like Bangladesh can ensure adequate supplies of energy to fuel its economic growth in
this global environment of scarcity of desired fuels and high costs.
To increase the electrification rate and to offset the power deficit in the face of access
demand over supply, a substantially large amount of new capacity has to be created.
At present many plants are derated due to old age, some have even crossed retirement
age and many more have become obsolete, yet they are kept in operation. Such
situation always advocates for the expansion or abandonment of the plant facilities. In
ii
this respect, the factors that are to be considered are the economical and technical life
of thc plant facilities, the fuel type and plant technologies, and the various costs of
capi tal, fuel and operation and maintenance etc.
In this thesis, an attempt has been made to apply a linear programming model to
develop an expansion program based on the optimal generation-mix of various power
plants in our country taking cognisance of various costs attendant therein. This will
ensure meeting the power demand substantially and at the same time, minimising all
relevant costs.
The resul ts of the model present optimum operating schedules showing the
generation-mix of various power plants at various loads (peak, day-peak, oft~peak and
base load) throughout the year in the future planning periods. It is expected that the
outcome of the applied model will act as a guide for the relevant personnel for
efficient tllture plmming of the capital and physical resources to develop an optimum
power supply system in our country.
