Keywords

1 Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely impacted every span of life and cornered the technological advancement globally. The most advanced countries except China are among the deadly affected countries. Meanwhile, thousands of lives are lost, and pandemic had a short term and a long-term impact on the global health services, education system, economy, airlines transportation system, and social interaction. Since January 2020, governments in many countries have shut down all educational institutions, shopping malls, industries, airlines, recreation facilities including beaches, sporting facilities and both public and private offices due to the outbreak of COVID-19. In emergency cases, both public and private offices including banks were run by a slim number of staffs. However, pandemic has positive impacts on e-commerce, ICT (information and communication technology) business, global warming due to greenhouse gas emission due to the restricted movement of people . As electricity is the key to the modern ICT based lifestyle; therefore, to assess the positive and negative impacts of this pandemic on the global economy, industry, business, daily life, and natural environment, one of the most important indicators is electricity consumption. The consumption of electricity is a very crucial indicator in evaluating any kind of economic development or disaster or living standard (Yoo & Lee, 2010, 622) (Grottere et al., 2018, 877). Recently, several research works have been carried out on the impacts of COVID-19 on the power and energy sector. The impacts of lower supply and demand on the electricity market and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission have been analysed by Zhong et al (Zhong et al., 2020). Gillingham et al investigated the short-term effects such as reduction of CO2, air pollution as well as the long-term effects such as investment in electricity generation from renewable energy sources (Gillingham et al., 2020, 1337). According to Hosseini, there has been a significant reduction in the implementation of sustainable energy technology due to the impacts of COVID-19 on renewable energy manufacturing facilities and supply chains (Hosseini, 2020, 101633). Abu-Rayash et al reported that in China there was an estimated CO2 emission reduction of approximately 25% in February 2020 compared with the same month in 2019 due to the lockdown in industrial sector (Abu-Rayash & Dincer, 2020, 101682). Quéré et al reported that the daily average global CO2 emission reduction was 17% in April 2020 compared with April 2019 (Le Quéré et al., 2020, 647). However, these are short-term effects; these studies will help the policy makers planning the electricity generation from renewable and sustainable energy sources.

All the above studies on the impacts of COVID-19 have been conducted based on the data from developed countries. The most highly densely populated countries in the world are India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Therefore, the aim of this work is to study the impacts of COVID-19 for these developing countries, which were moderately affected by COVID-19 during April to July 2020. During to the COVID-19 outbreak, the educational, industrial, and commercial, infrastructure were completely under shutdown from March to June 2020. Every occurrence in nature has two types of impacts—constructive and destructive. The destructive consequence is that it took the lives of thousands of people globally. On the contrary, the COVID-19 has also several constructive impacts. It recovered the polluted environment a lot by reducing GHG emission. About 75% of India’s electricity is still generated from fossil fuels, meaning the country has one of the world’s dirtiest electricity systems. The power sector is also responsible for 50% of India’s CO2 emissions (Carbon Brief, 2020). In Bangladesh, the most vulnerable sector of CO2 emission is the electrical power generation plants because most of the power plants (98%) are fossil fuel (coal, gas, and oil) based, and are responsible for around 52% of CO2 emissions (Options for Carbon Tax in Bangladesh 2018) (BPDB, 2020). The demand for electricity has been increasing every year in these countries; and as a result, the GHG emission from this sector has been increasing with an annual average rate of 8.8% per year (World Bank Group, 2018). The power sector of Bangladesh is responsible for 44% of total carbon emission in the country in 2016. Despite the significant contribution of power sector in CO2 emission on the environment, there is no established global mechanism for the estimation of emission data on a real time basis, only yearly data are available. In Bangladesh, data of daily electricity generation, types of primary energy sources used, and the electricity demand are available from the official website of PGCB (Power Grid Company Bangladesh) (PGCB, 2020). Unfortunately, there was no effort from the researchers’ side for the quantitative analysis of total CO2 emission from the power generation plants of Bangladesh. Mondal et al investigated for appropriate electricity generation technologies with reduced CO2 emission targets and carbon tax for the period of 2005–2035 for the power sector of Bangladesh. They also apprehended that solar PV may play an important role in achieving sustainable energy security (Mondal et al., 2010, 4902). However, from the daily/monthly electricity generation data, the estimation of CO2 and GHG emission for different primary energy sources (mainly fossil fuel) is yet to be done.

In this article, it is aimed to briefly describe the electricity generation scenarios of India, Bangladesh, and Sri-Lanka (types of primary energy sources and technologies), and to estimate the peak GHG emission reduction due to restriction and lockdown during the period of March to July 2019 and 2020. Comparing these estimated data, a quantitative analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on the environment and power sector of these countries will be presented.

2 Current Scenario of Power Sector of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka

At present the electricity generation plants in Bangladesh are controlled by BPDB (Bangladesh Power Development Board), six other government owned companies (Ashugang Power Station Co Ltd, North West Power Generation Co Ltd, Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh, Coal Power Generation Co. Bangladesh Ltd, Rural Power Company Ltd, B-R Power Generation Ltd) and several IPPs (Independent Power Producers) and SIPPs (Small Independent Power Producers). The generated power is fed to the national grid. The transmission system plays an important role in the power delivering system by making a link between the generating plants and the distribution systems. The power transmission throughout the country is solely controlled by Power Grid Company Bangladesh (PGCB), which is a public limited company. Finally, the distribution system supplies the electricity to the consumers. There are six distribution companies—Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (DESCO), Northern Electricity Supply Co. Ltd (NESCO), West Zone Power Distribution Co. Ltd (WZPDCL) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). BPDB works as a single buyer in the power market of Bangladesh. BPDB purchases electricity from the public and private generation entities and sells bulk electricity to all the distribution utilities including its four distribution zones (Chattogram 3 distribution zone, Mymensingh distribution zone, Cumilla distribution zone and Sylhet distribution zone). The distribution entities that purchase electricity from BPDB are as follows: Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO), West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd (WZPDCL), Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), Northern Electricity Supply Company Ltd (NESCO) and BPDB’s four distribution zones. Almost 50% of electrical power of Bangladesh is distributed by BREB which mainly distributes power in the rural areas (Hasan et al., 2021).

In Bangladesh, as on October 2020, the total system installed capacity was 23548 MW (including Captive and Renewable), which includes 9,717 MW from public sector, 8,884 MW from private sector, 662 MW PPP, 1,160 MW imported from India and 365 MW renewable and 2,800 MW from off-grid captive power plants (BPDB, 2020). The total electricity generation in the fiscal year 2019–2020, was 71419 GWh (BPDB, 2020). The total energy generated in the 2019–2020 fiscal year (both in public and private sector power plants) by type of fuel are shown in Fig. 1. At present, the total transmission and distribution loss in Bangladesh is 11.23% (BPDB, 2020). Based on the standard emission factors for different types of fossil fuels, it is possible to calculate the GHG emission for per MWh energy production from different types of power plants. The technology-based capacity of Bangladesh is shown in Fig. 2. Though the pie chart in Fig. 2 is showing 0.16% solar energy supply capacity but recently, Government of Bangladesh has setup some solar-based power plants (i. e., 73 MW solar power plant at Mymensingh, 35 MW solar power plant at Pabna, 7.4 MW solar power plant at Kaptai etc.). There are 36 solar parks in Bangladesh with a rated electricity generation capacity of 2110.56 MW (National Database of Renewable Energy, 2021). 

Fig. 1
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(Source: BPDB, 2020 and PGCB, 2020)

Energy generation from different sources and consumption in different sectors for Bangladesh.

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Fig. 2
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(Source: BPDB, 2020)

Technology-based Capacity in Bangladesh.

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Fig. 3
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(Source: IEA, 2020)

Energy generation from different sources and consumption in different sectors for India.

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In India, the production of electricity is mostly achieved through coal thermal power plants. The government of India is focusing on electricity production from renewable energies, but as of now, coal remains the dominant source of electricity in the country. Energy generation from different sources and consumption in different sectors for India is shown in Fig. 3. Since 2000, the percentage production of electricity from coal has been increasing and now has increased to 73% (World Bank database, 2021). In 2019, India generated 356100.19 MW comprising of Thermal 226279.34 MW (63.54%), Hydro 45399.22 MW (12.75%), Nuclear 6780.00 MW (1.9%) and Renewable Energy generation from different sources and consumption in different sectors for India is shown in Fig. 3. (Energy Sources (RES) 77641.63 MW (21.8%) (CEA, 2019). Renewable electricity in the form of solar, wind, biomass, and small hydropower with a capacity of less than 25 MW plants are progressing. Non-utilities or independent power producers have also been growing at a rate of 10% over the years (Energy Statistics, 2019). The consumption of electricity is 1209972 GWh during the year 2018–19 in India. The length of transmission and distribution lines is 12682649 ckt. -km.

Sri Lanka’s primary power generation sources were oil (23.6%) and coal (31%) in 2017. Almost 40% of Sri Lanka’s electricity came from hydropower in 2018 but coal’s shares in power generation have been increasing since 2010. At present coal is the most dominating energy source of Sri Lanka. Fig. 4 shows the percentage contribution of different sources in the power generation of Sri Lanka. The maximum electricity demand is 2,616.10 MW in the year 2018. Sri Lanka has hydropower, thermal power and solar, Biomass and wind power with an installed capacity of 1793 MW, 2037 MW and 216 MW respectively. In the case of sector-wise CO2 production, transport produced 48.5% and electricity and heat produced 38.84% in 2018 (IEA, 2019). The Peak daily demand of electricity and daily total energy is 2566.03 MW and 45.62 GWh on 22 April 2021 respectively (CEB, 2018). This increased dependence on fossil fuels has also led to an increase in Sri Lanka’s GHG emissions, which while amongst the lowest in the world (ranked 194th out of a total 251 countries) as well as in South Asia (1 tCO2e/capita in 2018) has been growing steadily over the past decade (from 0.6 tCO2e/capita in 2000) (ADB, 2020).

Fig. 4
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(Source: IEA, 2019)

Energy generation from different sources and consumption in different sectors for Sri Lanka

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3 Comparison of Electricity Generation during Pre-pandemic and Pandemic Regime

Due to the severe spreading effect of COVID-19, lockdown was declared on March 17, 2020, in Bangladesh (Shammi et al., 2020, 6148). Offices, educational institutes, industries, and shopping malls were shut down during the lockdown. This lockdown also made an impact on the power generation in Bangladesh. According to the announcement of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the lockdown was relaxed on May 31, 2020. To realize the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on power generation and the environment, electricity data of April’19—July 2019 (pre-pandemic regime) and April’20-July’20 (pandemic regime) were collected from (PGCB, 2020) and compared.

The electricity generation sagged significantly during the lockdown period (17 March 2020– 31 May 2020) compared to the same period of 2019. During June 2020—July 2020 (after lockdown is relaxed), the electric power generation was quite indistinguishable from that of the same period in 2019, shown in Fig. 5 which indicates the power sector recovered the accustomed trend of generation as the lockdown was completely relaxed. From the data analysis, it is observed that power generation decreased by 15.52% and 19.33% in April and May 2020 respectively. The most prominent effect of lockdown on the power sector is realized after comparing the power generation of May 2019 with May 2020, which is shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7 is a comparative representation of the variation of total power generation (%) in Bangladesh considering the pre-pandemic and pandemic period (Hasan et al., 2021)

Fig. 5
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(Source: Hasan et al., 2021)

Daily load generation in the months of April to July in the years 2019 and 2020 in Bangladesh.

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Fig. 6
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(Source: Hasan et al., 2021)

Comparative analysis of total monthly electricity generation.

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Fig. 7
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(Source: Hasan et al., 2021)

Comparison of total power generation in the months of April to July in the years 2019 and 2020 in Bangladesh.

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Fig. 8
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(Source: IEA, 2020)

Comparative Analysis of Electricity Generation in India.

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India is one of the most highly populated countries in the world with a population of around 1.3 billion. The power sector of India went through rapid structural changes in the last couple of decades. The power network of India is divided into five different regions: Northern Region (NR), Western Region (WR), Southern Region (SR), Eastern Region (ER) and North Eastern Region (NER). India’s Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO, 2019) oversees the national power grid. India has one of the most extensive synchronous interconnected grids in the world with an installed capacity of about 370 GW and regular base load power demand is around 150 GW. Industrial and agricultural consumption is around 50% and 25% respectively, while commercial consumption is around 8%. Likewise, in other countries, the COVID-19 outbreak started in India too and the government started acting from the middle of March 2020. In India, Janata Curfew was imposed on 22 March 2020, whereas nationwide lockdown started from 25 March 2020 and continued till 17 May 2020. Before the start of Janata Curfew, the electricity consumption across the country attained a greater magnitude around 3500 GWh. Subsequently, during the declaration, i. e., on 22 March 2020, demand started to decay and obtained a value of about 3000 GWh, continued its trend, and stretched lower most demand scale nearly 2500 GWh on 1 April 2020. In May 2020, the average all India daily energy consumption reduced by around 1000 GWh compared to that of 2019. In August 2020, India had a total net production of 127442 GWh which is 1.4% less than August 2019. Comparative Analysis of Electricity Generation in India is shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 9 shows the percentage reduction of electricity generation during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Electricity generation for India was reduced to about 10% in March 2020 (Kandari & Kumar, 2021). During April 2020, the electricity generation in India decreased the most (26%) (IEA, 2020).

Fig. 9
figure 9

(Source: IEA, 2020)

Percentage of Electricity Generation reduction due to COVID-19 lockdown in India.

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Figure 10 shows the electricity generation variation in 2019 and 2020 from January to August. During January-August 2019, the electricity generation in India was 1031412 GWh and during the same period in 2020, the electricity generation was 971761 (a reduction of 5.78%). The reason for this electricity generation reduction is the COVID-19 lockdown during the period of 25 March—17 May 2020. Fig. 11 shows that during the lockdown period in 2020, the electricity demand was less and as a result, that the most dominant electricity generating source, coal-based energy production was on the decline in India. Gas, oil and nuclear do not show any significant changes over the year. Nowadays, India is focusing on energy generation from renewable sources, which is evident from Fig. 11.

Fig. 10
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(Source: IEA, 2020)

Comparative analysis of electricity generation from January-August in the years of 2019 and 2020 in India.

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Fig. 11
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(Source: IEA, 2020)

Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on electricity generation from different energy sources in 2020, India.

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Sri Lanka reported the first case of COVID-19 on 27 January 2020. Consequently, on 20 March 2020, curfew was declared nationwide till 24 March 2020, and it was further extended till 19 April 2020. On 19 April 2020, the Government of Sri Lanka decided to partially relax the curfew by permitting inter-district travel only for essential and emergency purposes. After 52 days of curfew declaration, on 11 May 2020, the government completely relaxed the curfew by partially opening offices, industries, and businesses (Erandi et al., 2020, 1). In Sri Lanka, the average daily energy generation is 48.5 GWh and during the curfew, the daily generation reduced to 32.7 GWh. The peak demand decreased to 2000 MW from 2600 MW. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the coal-based 900 MW power plant was maintained properly which supplied 30% of the loads. The total generation was decreased in April 2020 in comparison to the same period in 2019 (USAID & SARI/EI, 2020). In Bangladesh, electricity generation was lowest in May 2020 whereas, in India and Sri Lanka, electricity generation was lowest in April 2020. Fig. 12 shows the comparative percentage of electricity generation reduction due to COVID-19 lockdown. India is highly affected by COVID-19 in the South Asian region and the electricity generation of India reduced the most in April 2020 in comparison to the other two South Asian countries considered in this paper.

Fig. 12
figure 12

(Source: IEA, 2020; USAID & SARI/EI, 2020)

Percentage electricity generation reduction due to COVID-19 in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka.

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4 COVID-19 Impacts on the Environment: GHG Emission

The demand and consequently the generation of electricity have been affected during the lockdown period due to COVID-19 pandemic. In Bangladesh and India, the maximum reductions in electricity generation have been observed in May and April respectively. In this section, the changes in greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission in the month of May for Bangladesh and in the month of April for India in the years of 2019 and 2020 are estimated and analysed. In Bangladesh, the primary energy sources in power plants are coal, natural gas, oil, hydropower and imported high voltage direct current (HVDC) from India. In India, the primary energy sources in power plants are coal, hydro, wind, solar, and natural gas. The GHG emission due to the generated electrical energy (Egenerated) associated with each primary source is calculated by multiplying the emission factor (EF) of each source as follows:

$$GHG_{emission} = EF \times E_{generated}$$
(1)

Table 1 shows the GHG emission factors of each primary energy source presented in (Woo et al., 2017, 340) where 167 previous studies involving the life cycle assessment of GHG emission related to energy sources have been reviewed (Turconi et al., 2013, 555).

Table 1 GHG Emission Factor for Different sources (Woo et al., 2017, 340) (Turconi et al., 2013, 555)
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4.1 A. Calculation of GHG emission in Bangladesh

In each case, the average values are considered to calculate the GHG emission. For Bangladesh, the GHG emission for the imported power through HVDC line from India is assumed to be zero; and in case of India, the GHG emission for other combined sources which are unspecified has been ignored.

It can be seen from Fig. 13 that the daily CO2 and NOX emissions in 2020 are generally lower than those of 2019 as expected. As presented in Fig. 6, the daily electricity generation reduced in the last 10 days of May due to lockdown and so did all the GHG emission. The average daily CO2, NOX and SO2 emissions in May were 123.01 kiloton, 0.31 kilo-and 0.05 kiloton in 2019, and 95.59 kiloton, 0.27 kilo-and 0.06 kiloton in 2020 respectively, which clearly shows the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the environment due to reduced generation of electricity. The increase in the daily emission in the first couple of weeks, and consequently, the average daily SO2 emission can be contributed to increased electricity generation from coal and discussed in the next section.

Fig. 13
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(Source: Own depiction)

Daily GHG emission in the month of May in the years 2019 and 2020 in Bangladesh.

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The results in Fig. 14 depict the GHG emissions due to electricity generated from different sources in Bangladesh. The GHG emissions associated with fossil fuels are substantially higher compared to the GHG emissions related to hydropower. In Bangladesh, the public power plants mainly consume natural gas and coal to generate electricity, and the private sector equally uses natural gas and oil. Thus, it can be concluded that natural gas is the primary source of electricity generation in Bangladesh. As a result, it can be observed that the highest amount of energy generated, and associated GHG emission are from natural gas, followed by oil and coal. In 2020, GHG emission from natural gas decreased by 16.03% mainly due to 19.18% (2.92 MWh to 2.36 MWh) reduced energy generated in public power plants. The electricity generation from coal increased by 79% in 2020 in comparison with that of 2019 in May (Hasan et al., 2021); and consequently, GHG emissions from coal increased by 70.52%. The generated energy from oil in private sector decreased by 42.53% (1.27 MWh to 0.73 MWh) in the month May in 2020 compared to that in 2020 while the generated electricity from oil in public sector remained unchanged (Hasan et al., 2021). Therefore, the GHG emission from oil is reduced by 48.44% in 2020. Fig. 15 shows the percentage comparative GHG emission from different sources in the months of May in 2019 and 2020 in Bangladesh.

Fig. 14
figure 14

(Source: Own depiction)

Total GHG emission from different sources in May in the years 2019 and 2020 in Bangladesh.

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Fig. 15
figure 15

(Source: Own depiction)

Total GHG emission in May in the years 2019 and 2020 in Bangladesh.

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Since natural gas is the primary source of electricity generation in Bangladesh and the electricity generated from natural gas decreased by 16.03% in May 2020 compared to April 2019, the change in total GHG emission in Bangladesh is considerably influenced by it. The total CO2 emission reduced by 22.29% (3567.5 kiloton to 2772.14 kiloton) and total NOX emission reduced by 15.57% (8.93 kiloton to 7.8 kiloton) in 2020 during the month of May in Bangladesh as expected. As presented in Table 1, the emission factor of SO2 for coal (3.365 gSO2/kWh) is significantly higher than that of natural gas (0.165 gSO2/kWh). As a result, overall emission of SO2 is greatly influenced by coal. There has been 79% increase electricity generation from coal in 2020 in compared with that of 2019 in May (Hasan et al., 2021), which led to 70.52% (0.54 kiloton to 0.98 kiloton) increase in the SO2 emission from coal. Consequently, the total SO2 emission increased by 23.36% (1.35 kiloton to 1.67 kiloton).

4.2 B. Calculation of GHG emission in India

To analyse the reduction in GHG emission associated with different sources in the month of April in India, the total GHG emission from each source are calculated and presented in Fig. 16.

Fig. 16
figure 16

(Source: Own depiction)

Total GHG emission from different sources in April in the years 2019 and 2020 in India.

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The results in Fig. 16 depict the GHG emission due to electricity generated from different sources in April in the years of 2019 and 2020 in India. It can be observed that the highest amount of energy generated, and associated GHG emission are from coal, followed by natural gas and hydro. It can be noted that except natural gas and solar, the GHG emission reduced for all the sources. In April 2020, CO2 emissions from coal, hydro and wind decreased by 31.52% (91066.84 kiloton to 62364.13 kiloton), 7.24% (98.96 kiloton to 91.07 kiloton) and 3.99% (2.73 kiloton to 2.62 kiloton) respectively. The increase in GHG emission from natural gas can be contributed to increase in generation of electricity from natural gas in 2020, although the overall generation from all sources combined has reduced. Solar and wind power plants may not emit GHG during the generation of electricity, but their lifetime emissions, related to the emission footprint from the manufacturing of solar cells, solar panels, and wind turbines should be considered (Sara, n. d.) (Ziegler et al., 2018, 1261). In both cases, a system lifetime of 25 years has been assumed to calculate the GHG emission. The increase of 28.07% GHG emission from solar energy suggests that new solar-based power plants have been installed in the year of 2020 in India (ET Energy World, 2020) (Renewable Energy World, 2020). Fig. 17 shows the total GHG emissions in the months of April in 2019 and 2020 in India. Since coal is the primary source of electricity generation in India, and the electricity generated from coal decreased by 31.52% (96640.1 GWh to 66180.8 GWh) in April 2020 compared to April 2019, the change in total GHG emission is greatly affected by it. As a result, the total CO2 emission reduced by 29.75% (3567.5 kiloton to 2772.14 kiloton), total NOX emission reduced by 29.59% (8.93 kiloton to 7.8 kiloton), and total SO2 emission reduced by 31.19% (1.35 kiloton to 1.67 kiloton).

Fig. 17
figure 17

(Source: Own depiction)

Total GHG emission in the month of April in the years 2019 and 2020 in India.

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Sri Lanka produced 20.6 Mt of CO2 in the year 2018 where electricity produces 8 Mt of CO2 (38.84%). In 2019, 1.16 tCO2 per capita CO2 emission and 24.84 million-ton annual CO2 emission was recorded from power sector (Ritchie & Roser, 2020). Sri Lanka experienced 10.04% SO2 reduction during COVID-19 lockdown compared to the same period in 2019 (Roy et al., 2021, 144009). In India, carbon emission from the sector wise perspective, a total 2307.78 Mt of CO2 was produced, and a majority of 1183 Mt of CO2 (51.28%) was produced from electricity and heat producers in 2018. According to IEA, global Carbon dioxide emission reduced by 8% in 2020 compared to 2019 (IEA, 2020). Power industry contributes 29.1% of the total carbon-dioxide emission in Sri Lanka (Worldometers, 2019). For Sri Lanka, Carbon dioxide emission from electricity is 0.71 kg/KWh (ODSM, 2021). Electricity and heat play a significant role in CO2 emission in all the three countries mentioned in this paper. In India, 2616 MtCO2 was released in 2019 (AWI, 2020). Comparative percentage reduction of GHG emission in India during lockdown shows that the reduction of CO2 (-29.75%), NOX (-29.59%) and SO2 (-31.19%) emission is maximum in India during April 2020 which is in line with the electricity generation reduction scenario due to COVID-19 lockdown.

5 Conclusion

In this paper, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the power generation of three South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka) and the consequences on the environment due to GHG emission are presented. At first, necessary statistics related to electricity generation in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka for a particular period in the year of 2019 and 2020 (during lockdown period) are collected to realize the impact of this pandemic on the power sector and environment. After that, rigorous comparative analyses are conducted. It is evident from the analysis that during the COVID-19 lockdown period, there was a 16.96% reduction of power generation in the month of May 2020 compared with that of May 2019 in Bangladesh. In India, the reduction of electricity generation was 26% in April 2020 compared to that of April 2019. Sri Lanka had a 22.7% reduction of electricity generation in April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. There was a significant CO2 emission reduction (22.29%) in Bangladesh, in May 2020 whereas, in India, CO2 reduction was 29.75% in April 2020. NOX and SO2 reduction in India were 29.59% and 31.19% respectively. In Bangladesh during the lockdown in May 2020, NOX decreased by 15.57% and SO2 increased by 23.36%. It is also found that the electricity generation and GHG emission reduction during lockdown agree of the severity of COVID-19 in these three countries. India is the most affected country by COVID-19 in South Asia and the power generation and GHG emission reduced the most in the case of India among the three countries discussed in this paper. In the future, a similar study can be performed for the other countries to investigate the impacts of COVID19 on the power system and GHG emission.