In Kalapara, residents often question why load shedding occurs despite the presence of large power plants in the area and local demand that is only a small fraction of their generation capacity. Similar questions are frequently raised in Bhola about the relationship between local energy resources and electricity services. These concerns have also been voiced in Bangladesh’s Parliament by the Hon’ble Speaker and the respective Members of Parliament representing Kalapara and Bhola.
Whether these perceptions are accurate is not the central issue. The real issue is that citizens often lack access to the information needed to understand how the electricity system actually works. When reliable information is absent, speculation naturally fills the gap. This is not simply a communication problem. It is a governance problem. Citizens still struggle to understand what is happening inside the system.
At the same time, electricity tariffs have been adjusted more than once. Consumers have been asked to pay more. Citizens pay for the system through electricity bills, taxes and public investment. A reasonable question therefore arises: If we pay for power, why can’t we see the system?
The absence of accessible information creates a vacuum, and in those vacuum rumours flourish. Similar concerns can be heard across the country. Citizens question maintenance practices, service quality and distribution reliability. Communities that host major energy facilities often ask why they continue to experience supply problems. Such concerns are not limited to ordinary consumers. They have also been raised by elected representatives in Parliament.
Not every complaint is necessarily correct. But citizens should not have to rely on assumptions, rumours or social media debates to understand how an essential public service operates. When people understand why a problem exists, what is being done to address it and how long a solution may take, they are far more likely to trust public institutions. Transparency is therefore not simply an administrative exercise; it is a public service in itself.
Many countries have recognised the importance of making their electricity systems visible to citizens. Sri Lanka publishes daily generation statistics, peak demand figures and generation mix data. Nepal provides information on demand, supply, imports, exports and system interruptions through a single public-facing platform. Australia uses outage maps showing where interruptions are occurring, how many customers are affected and when services are expected to be restored.
Singapore regularly publishes reliability indicators and service performance data, while Japan provides supply-demand forecasts, reserve margins and system status information. These countries differ significantly in size, wealth and energy resources. They are not perfect. They experience outages, maintenance challenges and supply constraints like every other country. The difference is not that they have solved every problem. The difference is that citizens are not left guessing what the problem is.
Bangladesh’s power sector has many institutions, many hearings, many notices and many websites. What it still lacks is a citizen-centred transparency framework. The country already has ministries, regulators, generation companies, transmission operators, distribution utilities and rural electrification organisations. The challenge is not institutional absence. The challenge is information fragmentation. Citizens should not have to navigate multiple agencies and websites to understand a single public service.
A meaningful public dashboard should go beyond organisational information and provide operational visibility. Citizens should be able to see installed generation capacity, available generation capacity, current demand, plants under maintenance, generation losses caused by fuel shortages, major transmission constraints, district-level load shedding data, plant availability rates, capacity payments and expected timelines for resolving major disruptions. The objective is not to turn citizens into engineers. The objective is to help them understand how the system is performing and where the challenges lie.
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) could play a leading role in this effort. As the sector’s regulator and the institution that already conducts public hearings on electricity pricing, BERC is well-positioned to host a unified public information platform that consolidates information from across the sector.
Bangladesh already conducts public hearings when electricity tariffs are adjusted. A similar approach could be adopted for performance transparency. At least once a year, citizens should be able to hear directly from sector regulators and utilities about generation capacity, system reliability, fuel constraints, load shedding patterns and future investment plans. Public participation should not be limited to discussions about price alone.
Parliament may consider establishing minimum transparency standards for public utilities. Energy regulators and service providers should be required to publish essential operational information in a citizen-friendly format through a single public platform.
Such a framework would not require the creation of new institutions. It would simply make existing institutions more visible, understandable and accountable to the people they serve. Citizens do not need to become engineers to understand the electricity sector. Nor should they need to navigate dozens of institutions to find basic information. The goal is not to simplify the power system. The goal is to simplify the citizens’ experience of the power system.
Bangladesh does not need another electricity institution. It needs a single trusted window through which citizens can see the performance of the entire system. The future of Bangladesh’s power sector will not be determined only by how many megawatts it can generate. It will also be shaped by whether citizens can see, understand and trust the system built in their name and paid for with their money.
‘One sector, Many institutions, One public dashboard’. That should be the next reform – not as a favour, but as a governance obligation owed to the people who ultimately fund, use and sustain the system.
(The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author)
The writer is a Columnist and Founder & Director, Right Turn. E-mail: [email protected]
