Electricity generation from this unit of the state-owned Matarbari 1200-megawatt plant commenced on test to augment the country's overall electricity generation from coal, officials said.
"We have initiated the test run since January 18 and the second unit is currently supplying around 400mw electricity," managing director of Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Ltd (CPGCL) Abul Kalam Azad told the FE Monday.
He expects commercial operation date (COD) of the second unit of the power plant, located at Moheshkhali island in coastal Cox's Bazar district, in March.
Commercial electricity generation from the first unit of around 600mw capacity started on December 26. The first unit is now shut awaiting capacity test by state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), said Mr Azad.
"The plant has sufficient coal in stock," he said, ruling out reported 'coal scarcity' as the cause of shutdown of the first unit.
The commissioning of the Matarbari coal-fired power plant will augment Bangladesh's overall electricity-generation capacity from coal.
Last year, a bunch coal-fired power plants, including Adani Power's 1,496mw plant of India, 612mw Unit-1 of SS Power plant, 1,320mw Rampal plant, and Barisal Electric's 307mw plant came into operation.
The Matarbari power plant on the offshore bay island will require around 10,000 tonnes of coal daily to generate electricity to its full capacity, and 3.73 million tonnes a year.
State-owned CPGCBL has been implementing the power plant at an estimated cost of US$4.50 billion.
Sources said the Matarbari power plant was proposed in September 2011 and granted environmental approval in October 2013. Groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place in January 2018. The thermal power plant has been developed on around 1,500-acre land.
A new deep-sea port facility named Matarbari Port has been developed for importing coal. The port will include a 760m-long container and a multi-purpose terminal.
The port terminal includes a fuel berth, a fuel-transportation facility, and two coal-handling jetties. The channel length is around 14km, width 250m and maximum depth is around 18.5 meters.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of ¥10.74 billion ($90m) for the project in June 2014. The ODA loan has a repayment period of 30 years and grace period of ten years.
JICA awarded another ODA loan worth ¥2.65 billion ($20m) to the Government of Bangladesh in June 2018 for the development of the Matarbari port.
The agency's Study Team and Tokyo Electric Power Services prepared the environmental impact study for the power plant.
A consortium of Sumitomo, Toshiba and IHI was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project, in August 2017.
Sumitomo subcontracted Toshiba Plant Systems and Services for constructing the port and providing other plant equipment and associated civil works, while Penta-Ocean Construction was awarded a $1.4-billion subcontract for the construction works related to the coal port.
Toshiba will supply the steam turbines and generators for the power plant, while IHI will provide the boilers.
Sumitomo awarded the civil engineering contract worth $840m to Posco E&C, a company based in Korea.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Bangladesh contracted DevCon for the detailed design and supervision of access road construction for the Matarbari coal-fired power hub.
Meanwhile, gas shortages and resultant power-generation fall affected industries and homes particularly in greater Chattogram and Dhaka. The fracas was attributed to sea-based FSRU glitches and lower LNG imports, in the main.
Azizjst@yahoo.com