The Power Division wants to upgrade the Indo-Bangla grid line to import additional 500-megawatt (MW) electricity from India although the latter is not being able to commitment fully honour its earlier commitment to supply 500MW of power, officials said Friday.
Officials concerned said they have decided to upgrade the capacity of the Bheramara High-voltage Direct Current (HVDC) station investing Tk10.74 billion (US$138 million) to facilitate the import of 500MW more power from India.
Currently, India supplies nearly 200MW to 450MW daily through the cross-border power line instead of 500 megawatts as agreed under a power-purchase deal struck between the two countries in 2012.
According to the Power Development Board (PDB), India supplied 440MW power in the peak time on November 13, 427MW on October 13, 402MW on September 13 of the current year and 360MW on November 13 a year before.
Bangladesh government installed the 400-kilovolt HVDC grid from Bheramara to bordering Baharampur of India to get supply of the Indian power in 2013.
Under the power deal, India has been supplying electricity to Bangladesh since October 5 last year.
In February 2012, Dhaka and New Delhi signed the power-purchase deal for the import of 500MW power.
According to the deal, Bangladesh is now getting power at a rate of nearly Tk5.0 per-kilowatt hour.
"We want to upgrade the capacity of the existing grid so that Bangladesh can get a total of 1000MW power from India. We will require funds for improving the capacity of the grid," said a senior Power Division official.
He said they had requested the Economic Relations Division (ERD) to arrange the necessary funds, amounting to Tk10.74 billion, for the grid-upgradation project.
"We have also sent a preliminary project proposal to the Planning Commission (PC) for its prior approval," the official said.
A PC official said until or unless the government obtains confirmation of getting additional 500MW power from India for at least 20 years, the ambitious Tk 10.74-billion project for upgrading the capacity of the Bheramara HVDC station should not be undertaken.
"If India fails to supply its power for a longer period of time, the project will not be economically viable for the country," he said.
Currently, he noted, Bangladesh is not getting adequate electricity supply under the first power-purchase deal with New Delhi.
Under the capacity-upgrading project, the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) would set up the 500MW HVDC back-to-back converter unit (2nd module) at Bheramara.
Besides, the state-owned power supplier would also install a 12-kilometre- long 230kv grid line from Bheramara to Iswardi for supplying the imported power into the national grid.
Another high official said Bangladesh is expected to import an additional quantum of 600MW power between December 2015 and June 2017 from India.
Out of the 600MW power, 500MW would come through the Bheramara-Baharampur cross-border grid and another 100MW from Palatana power plant in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura.
Bangladesh had facilitated construction of the Palatana power plant by allowing transportation of equipment through Ashuganj river port, saving both time and money for the next-door neighbour.
Meanwhile, Power Secretary Monowarul Islam, after a meeting on October 11 with his Indian counterpart PK Sinha in New Delhi, said Dhaka is expected to get a sizable chunk of about 6,000MW to 6,500MW power by virtue of being transit point of a proposed ambitious grid connecting the Indian states of Assam and Uttar Pradesh.
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