Contingency plan to keep Barapukuria power plant going

FE Team | Published: November 11, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

M Azizur Rahman
The government is working out a contingency plan to keep the country's lone coal-fired Barapukuria power plant functioning despite shortage in coal production from the nearby Barapukuria coalmine.
"The Power Division recently asked the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to draw a plan keeping provision for coal imports, if necessary, to maintain uninterrupted electricity generation from the Barapukuria power plant," a senior Power Division official told the FE.
He said against the backdrop of mounting electricity supply shortage across the country the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) is now striving to keep the 250 megawatt (MW) Barapukuria power plant running.
The government is also more concerned about enhancing electricity generation to meet the rising demand for electricity, especially in the forthcoming dry season, to run the irrigation pumps.
Sources said since its commissioning in September 2005 the 250 MW (2X125) Barapukuria coal-fired power plant could hardly run in its full capacity mainly due to inadequate coal supply from the adjacent Barapukuria mine.
Out of its two units, one having the generation capacity of 125 MW has been out of operation due to scarcity of coal.
The BPDB was forced to import 25,000 tonnes of high- sulphur coal from the neighbouring India in February this year only to produce electricity from one unit.
Power division sources said despite investment of over Tk 16.0 billion over the years the Barapukuria coalmine is yet to produce sufficient coal to run both the units of the power plants.
On the contrary, the BCMCL was involved in a row with the BPDB over the pricing of its coal.
The Power Division had to constitute a committee to settle the dispute over the coal pricing between the two state-owned entities.
Moreover, the BCMCL recently informed the BPDB of its inability to extract sufficient coal from November 15 next.
The BCMCL has also informed the power development board that production of coal from the mine will be hampered over the next three months due to shifting of mining phase.
But keeping the Barapukuria power plant inoperative or partially operational for three months will aggravate the country's power supply situation further, the Power Division sources said.
They said despite investment of a large amount of money on development of the Barapukuria coalmine the BCMCL could, so far, extracted only 0.70 million tonnes of coal until January 2007.
A Chinese consortium, led by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC), completed the Barapukuria coalmine development works through underground mining in 2005.