Govt decides to buy 300MW electricity from rental plants

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M Azizur Rahman
The government has taken a fresh decision on purchase of up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity on an urgent basis from rental power plants over the next three years.
The Power Cell under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) has already sought Expression of Interests (EoIs) from the interested parties and asked them to submit those by July 26 next, a senior Power Division official told the FE.
He said the government would procure electricity from gas-based power plants having generation capacity of up to 300 MW on a fast track basis.
The planned rental power plants will have to initiate electricity supply to the national grid by February 2008.
Power division sources said the rental power plants will be set up under a 'plug and play' system as the government will provide all sorts of infrastructural facilities like required land and gas connection to the selected bidders.
The interested service providers should provide information in the EoI indicating that they would ensure the services in light of international experience and that they have barge or skid or trailer mounted power plants in ready stock.
Based on the EoIs, Power Cell will prepare a list of the potential service providers which will be invited to submit proposals, said the power division official.
The selected bidders might install one big power plant or a number of small plants with the generation capacity of 300 MW.
"Installation of big power plants on rental basis is a part of global practices to meet the urgent electricity need," the power division official said.
There are a number of international companies that supply power plants on rental basis to meet the sudden rise in electricity demand, he said.
A number of countries in the South Asian region including Sri Lanka and Pakistan have such rental power plants, he said.
"As Bangladesh is now reeling under a nagging electricity crisis due to inadequate generation of electricity in the past several years the planned rental power plants scheme is necessary for the country," he added.
Currently, the government is set to purchase around 240 MW of electricity from seven rental power plants as six companies have already became lowest bidders for installation of seven rental power plants across the country.
The companies, which initially became lowest bidders on the basis of the quoted prices in the tenders, include Youth Group, Ornate Power, Hosaf Power, Desh Engineering Ltd and Bengal Electric Ltd.
On completion of the tender evaluation, these companies will be selected to set up rental plants at separate locations from which the government will buy electricity over the next 15 years.
As per terms and conditions, the firms will have to install their plants within six months from the contract signing.