Inadequate infrastructure for the fuel transportation, handling, processing and storage may impede government's mega-plan for massive electricity generation from imported coal, officials and experts said.
Power division officials said the government had already taken programmes for setting up thermal power plants at different places in the country with an aggregate capacity of 7,625 megawatts.
It will necessitate nearly 23 million tonnes of coal.
All the coal for the power generation will be imported from different coal-rich nations, including Australia, Indonesia and India, they said.
Almost 75 per cent of the power in Bangladesh is produced from gas, while coal accounts for less than 3.0 per cent. The government plans to notch this share up to nearly 50 per cent by 2030.
Experts said the proposed 7,625MW power plants would consume nearly 23 million tonnes of coal every year, but the country has not had adequate infrastructure to handle those huge volumes of imported coal.
"We will install the thermal power plants. Simultaneously, we will work to develop the infrastructure for transporting, storage and processing facilities for the imported coal," a senior Power Division official told the FE Saturday.
For the total coal-based power generation, the government has decided to install 1,475MW-capacity two power plants at its own initiative, while 2,640MW-capacity two plants under public-private partnership (PPP) and 3,510MW-capacity seven plants under private-sector initiatives.
The government awarded contract to a local firm, Orion Group, to set up 522MW thermal power plant at Mawa in June 2012, a 630MW plant at Khulna in June 2012, 282MW plant in Dhaka, 282MW in Chittagong, 635MW in Dhaka in 2013.
Besides, it also awarded each of 612MW two coal-fired power stations in Chittagong to another local company, S Alam Group, in 2013.
The government allowed the Bangladesh-Indian Friendship Power Company Ltd to install 1320MW plant at Rampal in April 2013, the Coal Power Generation Company Limited (CPGCL) 1200MW plant at Matarbari and planned to award a Chinese company the deal for the 1320MW plant at Patuakhali.
The state-owned CPGCL will also set up the 1200MW capacity thermal power station at Matarbari in Maheshkhali Island. The plant would be expanded by another 1200MW capacity after successful completion of the planned project.
According to the preliminary estimation, the Matarbari power plant will require 3.63 million tonnes of coal and the Rampal 1320MW plant nearly 4.0 million tonnes annually.
A senior government official said the government has no preparation to handle such millions of tonnes of coal every year for the planned thermal power stations.
"The capacity of the existing ports is very poor. Those cannot handle such millions of tonnes of coal. So the government needs to enhance its unloading facility for the imported coal," he said, requesting anonymity.
"Besides, ensuring their preservation system is also imperative before going for setting up the thermal power stations."
An official at the CPGCL said, "We did not have any idea as to how the private sector and the government would handle such large volumes of coal in the planned power stations in Dhaka, Mawa, Khulna, Chittagong.
"The Matarbari power plant is a comprehensive one where the port facility for coal handling will be available," Dr M Tamim of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said.
But, he added, it is challenging for the government to run such number of coal-based power plants without adequate infrastructure of the coal transportation and storage.
"Firstly, nobody knows where will be the source of the huge volume of coal. Secondly, how the coals will be managed properly at different thermal power stations in the country is also a big question," he told the FE.
Dr Tamim thinks the government's decision for setting up such numbers of thermal power stations without proper coal-handling facility is not correct.
"If the coal-handling facility is not created before setting up the power stations, the country's power-supply system could break down," he forewarned.
The country currently produces 250MW power daily from the Barapukuria power plant. The plant uses the coal from the Barapukuria mine, started in 2005.
Since the country's coal reserves in some discovered mines are still untouched, the government is bound to import coal from different countries in the world to run the thermal power stations.
The untapped reserves are distributed into five mines as 390 tonnes in Barapukuria, 685 tonnes in Khalashpur, 572 tonnes in Fhulbari, 1050 tonnes in Jamalganj and 200 tonnes in Dighipara.
The World Energy Council estimates a coal reserve of over 860 billion tonnes worldwide, which is equivalent to 439,000 million tonnes of oil equivalents.
Two-thirds of coal is reserved in the USA, Russia, China, Australia and India accounting to 22.6, 14.4, 12.6, 8.9 and 7.0 per cent respectively.
The actual coal reserve in Bangladesh is approximately 3.0 billion tonnes, which is just 0.34 per cent of global total.
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Poor infrastructure may impede plan to generate power from imported coal
FHM Humayan Kabir | Published: November 30, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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