Twenty members Bangladesh Energy & Power Sectors technical and managerial senior level professionals were on a two-week long exposure cum capacity development program in Australia from July 27 till August 9, 2005.

Australian Government (DFAT) assisted and RMIT-Monash University administered program had provisions for workshop, seminars, and industry visit for Bangladeshi professionals in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

The team visited coalmines, coal-fired power generation plants, coal port and LNG plants.

The team also visited AEMO Gas System SCADA and Power System SCADA control rooms. The team had opportunity for interacting with Australian professionals having years of experience in resources development planning, infrastructure projects development, operation and maintenance.

The resource persons of the workshop were mix of academics and professionals. The group also visited MCG, ROD Laver Arena, Philip Island Penguin Parade, Puffing Billy, Wollong Gabba and Gold Coast (Sea World, Surfers Paradise). 



The team had representation from Power division and energy & mineral resources division of MPEMR, Petrobangla, PDB, EGCB, Power Cell, CPGCL, GTCL, and BCML. One senior Energy Journalist of a leading Bangladesh daily also was in the team.

In the opening session, member of Bangladesh parliament and member of parliamentary standing committee on Energy & Power, Bangladesh High Commissioner in Australia informed the audience about Bangladesh government policies and strategies in power and Energy sector.

Two participants made very informative presentations of coal mining and coal resources of Bangladesh and Power system of Bangladesh.

The visit exposed the Bangladeshi professionals to Australian best practices in coal mining, coal-fired power plant operation, coal export port operation, and LNG process plant and LNG export facilities management.

Former chairperson AER Andrew Reeves provided a very informative presentation on Australian Energy Market regulation, pricing, stakeholders engagement, compliance, energy auditing.

Director Santos and CEO GLNG project made a very useful presentation on LNG Processes and LNG terminal operation management.

Retired Santos Professional John Wilson made a daylong presentation in Adelaide on investment priorities of major energy companies in multi billion dollars deep-water offshore energy resources harnessing.

Mark Greenway retired professional of mining giant Rio Tinto discussed about coal sourcing, coal value chain.



The team during visit to Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Gas Grid SCADA control room in Melbourne could have a firsthand exposure to Australian east coast gas transmission system operation.

The visit to AEMO SCADA Control Room in Brisbane provided the team practical idea about Power Grid market operation of the east coast.

The team visited Basslink HVDC Interconnector that connects the power grid of Tasmania and Victoria.

The program proved very useful for Bangladesh at a time when Bangladesh energy and power sectors are in the threshold of making giant strides of expanding the energy resources acquisition from world market (coal and LNG) for expanding power generation base to 40,000 MW by 2030.

Bangladesh now has a generation capacity of about 11,500 MW about 65% of which is own natural gas based. Bangladesh will soon let out offshore bidding round for engaging IOCs for exploring deep-water petroleum prospects.

Bangladesh has also taken up major imported coal and LNG based power projects. Bangladesh is also constructing Coal Import terminal and LNG terminal.

The team met with Bangladeshi Community in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Gladstone. The prominent among those was Aminul Islam Bubul the cricket Icon of Bangladesh the team met at MCG.

The team could understand the paradigm shift of world energy market realizing the necessity for energy efficiency and energy conservation.

They could realize the importance of green energy generation (Solar, Wind and Hydro).

They also appreciated the necessity of private sector involvement at every segment of power and energy value chain, market based energy and power pricing, stakeholders active engagement, transparent policies, compliance and auditing.
 
The lessons learnt from the feedback of the participants would assist in tailoring the program of two more groups visit in February and August in 2016.

BDST: 1342 HRS, AUG 13, 2015
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