The finance minister on Thursday termed coal as the main source of fuel, and outlined a government plan to generate 10,051 megawatts (MW) of electricity through building a number of 'unsolicited' coal-fired power plants without elaborating about coal sourcing.
"Considering that coal will be the main fuel after 2015, we have finalised a plan to establish more coal-based power plants," AMA Muhith said in the parliament, while proposing the national budget for FY 2016.
The minister in his speech also hinted to come out from the present trend of awarding the high-cost oil-fired rental and quick rental power plants.
"At the beginning, we had to resort to some short-term solutions for resolving the long-pending problems of power sector."
"Power crisis has almost been mitigated. We are now taking a number of steps towards lasting and sustainable solution."
In his speech, Mr Muhith also spelled out plans to generate electricity from nuclear power plants, renewable energy, and electricity import under sub-regional cooperation.
The planned coal-fired power plant projects include a 1,320 MW power plant at Rampal by Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, a 1,200 MW power plant at Matarbari with assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), four 1,200 MW power plants having the total generation capacity of 4,800 MW at Moheshkhali, and a 1,320 MW plant at Paira in Patuakhali with financial assistance from China, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore.
Agreements have also been signed to establish coal-fired power plants to generate 1,411 MW under public-private partnership (PPP).
Officials, however, said many of these planned power plants are going to be built bypassing tender procedure.
The finance minister mentioned the state-run Barapukuria coalmine as the major source for coal, from where he has targeted to extract around 110 million tonnes of coal over the next 25 years with an estimated production of 4-5 million tonnes of coal per year.
"But with this extraction quantity the coalmine could meet the need of only one 1,200 MW capacity power plant," said an official of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd.
Regarding nuclear power plant, Mr Muhith said, "We have undertaken a plan to generate 2,000 MW and 4,000 MW of electricity from nuclear energy by 2022 and 2030 respectively."
The government has set a target to import 6,500 MW of electricity by 2030 from the neighbouring countries.
"Since November 2013, we are importing 500 MW of electricity from India. Import of additional 600 MW is under process."
To implement the planned power and energy projects the finance minister proposed to allocate Tk 185.41 billion, which is 98.53 per cent higher than the revised budget of the outgoing FY.
Of the total allocation, Tk 165.04 billion has been proposed for power sector, and the remaining Tk 20.37 billion for energy sector in FY 2016.
In the revised budget for FY 2015 the government allocated a total of Tk 93.39 billion, of which 82.87 billion was for power sector, and Tk 10.52 billion for energy sector.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com
