The report surveys the challenges facingBangladesh's power sector today and makesrecommendations for consideration by national policy makers.Its starting point is the Government's goal ofuniversal access to electricity by 2021, when Bangladeshcompletes 50 years of independence. Bangladesh can justly beproud of its progress in providing power to its people overthe past decade. Generation capacity has steadily grown from5.5 GW in 2009 to more than 13 GW in 2017—an increase of 140percent. Starting from levels of access to electricity below50 percent, today access is around 80 percent, with aglobally recognized off-grid rural Solar Home System (SHS)program contributing almost 14 percent of that total. Sectorperformance is better than that of larger countries in theSouth Asia Region on key dimensions—distribution andtransmission losses (together around 14 percent) andcollection efficiency (above 90 percent). Bangladesh was anearly mover in initiating private power generation in thelate 1990s. The independent power producer (IPP) contractsawarded at that time through a transparent competitiveprocess brought it what remains even today some of thelowest cost power in South Asia. Power imports from Indiacommenced in 2013 and are set to grow—they are a criticalelement of the Government's strategy to supplementdomestic generation with other sources of supply. Thecountry has also demonstrated impressive mobilization andinstitutional capacity in selected agencies, which it canleverage in its quest to rapidly achieve middle-income status.
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