BD-Russian consortium wants to renovate Ghorasal power plant

FE Team | Published: March 29, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

M Azizur Rahman
A consortium of local and Russian power firms is eager to renovate the country's most aged and largest Ghorasal 950 megawatt (mw) power plant to boost electricity supply with efficient energy use, a top government official said Monday. He said the consortium of local RB Power and Russian Engineering Centre-UES has already submitted a proposal to the power ministry to rehabilitate five units of Ghorashal power plant under ROM (repair, operate and maintain) scheme. The consortium has also proposed for reconstruction of the damaged unit number six of the Ghorasal power plant for combined cycle operation. The official said the capacity of Ghorasal power plant is 950mw but it is now supplying only around 500mw. The six-unit Ghorasal power plant was installed during late 1970s with four 210-mw capacity and two 55-mw capacity units. But over the years the electricity generation capacity of the plant derailed substantially but its gas consumption increased significantly to generate electricity with old turbines, said the official. Ghorasal power plant's natural gas requirement is around 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) while a new 240-mw Siddhirganj power plant requires only 20 mmcfd of gas for electricity generation, said an official concerning the plant's excess energy consumption. The government has also been wasting tens of millions (crores) of taka to overhaul the plant very often without achieving any significant outcome, it was alleged. The unit six of Ghorashal power plant was damaged badly last year in a major fire accident. But continuing operation in other units under the prevailing condition appears to be a major risk of serious accidents similar to that of unit six, said officials. "We have placed a proposal to the government to renovate the age-old Ghorasal power plant in an efficient way," RB Power Chairman Arshad Husain told the FE Monday. Experts of the consortium visited the Ghorasal power plant early this month (before submitting a formal proposal), he said. "Some of the engineers of the Russian firm Engineering Centre-UES were engaged with the installation of Ghorasal power plant more than three decades ago," said Mr Arshad pointing to the competence of the consortium. Meanwhile, power ministry officials said the government has recently decided to renovate the country's aged power plants to augment electricity generation and slash energy consumption. It will make decision over the mode of renovation of the aged power plants shortly. Currently the country has five power plants aged over 40 years, 11 plants aged within 31 to 40 years, 23 plants within 21 to 30 years and 19 plants within 11 to 20 years. Most of the age-old power plants either remain shut or their units are operational at derailed capacities. However the maximum acceptable lifetime of any power plant is 20 years.