CG's plan to sign deals for new power plants falls flat

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M Azizur Rahman
The caretaker government's (CG) plan to sign deals for setting up new power plants having a total electricity generation capacity of 2,820-megawatts (MW) falls flat, as it could fulfill only one-third of the targets, officials said Saturday.
The power ministry so far could sign deals for generating around 900-MW of electricity from some pipelined projects with one month left for the expiry of the government tenure.
After taking office in January 2007 the government set a target to stamp deal to generate 1,470-MW of electricity by public sector and 1,350-MW under private-public partnership across the country by December 2008, said a senior power ministry official.
He said among the targeted deals for augmenting electricity generation the government was eyeing to sign deals to set up two big and six small-scale power plant projects having the generation capacity of 1,800-MW on priority basis.
The eight planned power plants included Bibiyana 450-MW, Sirajganj 450-MW, Shikolbaha 150-MW, Chandpur 150-MW, Khulna 150-MW, Sirajganj 150-MW and two peaking power plants at Shiddhirganj having the capacity of 150-MW each.
Signing deals for several small independent power plants (SIPPs) and rental power plants were also in the government target for approval.
But apart from signing deals for the SIPPs and rental power plants the government could move successfully with some peaking power plant projects, power ministry sources said.
Three peaking power plants having the electricity generation capacity of 150-MW each, Shikolbaha 150-MW power plant, ten SIPPs having the total generation capacity of around 200-MW and five rental power plants having the capacity of around 250-MW are among the plants in the success list of the government.
"Gas supply crunch was the main hindrance towards moving ahead with the planned power plant projects and signing necessary deals," power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan told the FE Saturday.
He said the state-owned Petrobangla opposed many of the power plant projects including Sirajganj 450-MW and Khulna 150-MW. Many operational power plants were also remained shut only due to inadequate gas supply, he added.
Besides, the Bibiyana 450-MW power plant project, which was closed to signing deal, was rejected, as the lone bidder Powertek Consortium offered comparatively higher power sale tariff to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the power secretary said.