DHAKA, Feb 10, 2022 (BSS) - The Unite States (US) Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded a nearly $1.5 million (Tk 12.90 crore) technical assistance grant to Power Cell (PC) to help improve the reliability, affordability and resiliency of Bangladesh’s electricity grid through smart grid infrastructure.  

PC, a policy and planning agency under the Bangladeshi Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, will use the fund for improvement of the grid system, said a press release here today.  
    
“For USTDA, the grant we are signing is an important example of the climate-smart infrastructure projects we are looking to support,” said Ambassador VinaiThummalapally (Ret.), USTDA’s Acting Director. 

 “It has the potential to shape Bangladesh’s power grid, to make it more efficient and dynamic, and to create a stronger foundation for the integration of renewable energy solutions,” said VinaiThummalapally. 

USTDA’s assistance will provide a detailed roadmap that will provide an investment and implementation schedule for using smart grid technologies to improve the grid in Bangladesh over the next ten years. 

 Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group will carry out the assistance.

“Two-way communication brought about by a smart grid will allow us to generate and use power more intelligently and efficiently.  Implementing a smart grid is therefore an infrastructure development as potent as any bridge or flyover,” said Helen LaFave, Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Dhaka.

This activity advances the goals of USTDA’s Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure, which connects US industry to major clean transport and energy infrastructure projects in emerging markets.