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There are more than 70 lakh power customers across the country with the peak demand for power exceeding 5,200 megawatt (MW) against a maximum supply of 3,300 MW last year.

The PDB’s earning rate from power sales is decreasing incrementally. On an average, the PDB now purchases power at Tk 2.53 per kilowatt hour (per unit) and sells it at Tk 2.15. In 05-06, the PDB earned Tk 2.27 per unit by selling power and Tk 2.41 in the previous fiscal year. It sells 80 percent of its power to the Desa, Desco, REB, and the Western Zone or Westzone at a rate much lower than its average price. For instance, the REB buys power at Tk 1.94 a unit and sells it around Tk 3 to rural customers. In addition, in the last fiscal, the PDB handed over huge distribution lines to REB. Some of these included PDB’s profitable zones. The Desa, which is the biggest consumer, and is mainly responsible for the loss making spectacle where power thieves take away nearly one fourth of the sales, pays the PDB Tk 1.88 per unit. The Desa however pays another Tk 0.23 per unit to the PGCB as transmission fee. The PDB sells the remaining 20 percent of the total power to its own customers at a much better rate. But this share is too little to improve the PDB’s financial condition. Only a few years back, the PDB’s average power purchase cost Tk 2.15 per unit while the sale price was around Tk 2.4. Back then, systems loss had been the major cause of the PDB’s loss.

DEALING WITH THE IPPS In addition to incurring losses, the PDB is contract-bound to make payments to independent power plants (IPPs) or for private power in foreign currency. Often the PDB is seen running into severe liquidity crisis in making these payments. The cost of IPP power had been largely very friendly for the PDB but the lack of PDB’s power sales price adjustments in the recent years is now taking its toll. The PDB paid a total of Tk 1,707 crore in 2004-05 and Tk 1,934 crore in 2005-06 to IPPs. The IPPS in 2005-06 supplied over 36 percent of the total electricity distributed across the country. The country produced 2,2741 gigawatt hour power during this time in which the IPPs supplied 8,286 gWh. Of all the IPPs, the Meghnaghat and the Haripur AES plants — 450MW and 360 MW — have kept the sinking PDB afloat for a few years. While the PDB swallows heavy losses from all private and public power plants due to inconsistent government policies, power from both Meghnaghat and Haripur plants remain the least costly. The average cost of Meghanaght power was Tk 1.46 a unit in 2004-05 and Tk 1.59 in 05-06, Haripur Tk 1. 25 in 2004-05 and Tk 1.33 in 05-06. The price remains low because of the original deals, and size and location of the plants although the deals demand payment in dollars. In contrast, other IPPs which were conceived and pushed by the Awami League government have remained unkind to the PDB. Two Mymensingh 70 MW simple cycle gas-fired units under the Rural Power Company (RPCL) charged Tk 3.51 a unit in 2005-06. The RPCL is owned by the government’s Rural Electrification Board (REB) and several palli bidyut samities, and is not a typical privately owned company. The NEPC 90 MW gas fired barge-mount plant charged Tk 3.63 a unit in 2005-06, Westmont 90 MW gas-fired barge-mount plant charged Tk 3.68 a unit during the same period and Khulna 110 MW oil-fired plant Tk 8.49 a unit. “Of them, Khulna unit is costly because it uses imported oil. Oil price has gone up from $90 a tonne to $300 in two years. The NEPC and Westmont deals demand payment in dollars, and the high dollar rate has contributed to this price hike,” one source pointed out. “Besides, small power deals always put up comparatively high prices.”

meen Health, an affiliate of Grameen Bank, has 51 clinics that offer low-cost treatment to villagers who pay an insurance premium of just $2 a year

Yunus says he is working with U.S. medical experts to create health care centers that allow villagers to transmit their medical information over the Internet using cellular telephones to a far-away doctor's computer. "He can see it on the screen and decide what the advice should be in this particular case and pick up the mobile phone and tell the health management center what is the next step to take, what precautions, whatever advice they have," he said.

One of his partners, Pfizer - the world's biggest pharmaceutical maker - is helping to evaluate Grameen's health care delivery systems. Another is General Electric, the world's top maker of medical imaging devices such as ultrasound machines. GE is working with villagers to make diagnostic equipment less complex and easier to carry to people's homes. And the Mayo Clinic, a leading nonprofit medical provider, is training village doctors and nurses how to use state of the art medical equipment.