BD-India JSC meet on power begins today

A meeting of the Bangladesh-India Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on power sector development begins today (Thursday) in New Delhi, reports UNB.
At the two-day meeting, Bangladesh will place a joint survey report on its proposed import of 100 MW power from India's Palatana Power Plant in Tripura state.
Sources at the Power Division said both Dhaka and Delhi jointly conducted a study to assess the needs for new infrastructures to be developed to import 100 MW of electricity from Palaltana plant as per decision of the last JSC meeting held in Dhaka in April this year.
Officials said the state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCB) and the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) carried out the joint feasibility study in the last few months and compiled the findings.
"The report is likely to be placed at the JSC meeting scheduled for October 9-10 in New Delhi," said Power Division's joint secretary Anwar Hossain.
He said both sides will discuss the findings of the survey and decide the next course of action based on it to build the connectivity to facilitate Bangladesh to import 100 MW power from the Palatana plant in Tripura.
According to the sources, power import from the Palatana Power Plant will take more than a year as it needs building new high voltage transmission lines.
India has set up the 726.6 MW gas-fired power plant project with its state-owned ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) limited. Bangladesh facilitated its development by allowing transportation of its heavy equipment through Bangladesh territory without imposing any tax.
Power Division officials here said Bangladesh's import of 100 MW power from Palatana will require installation of about 32-35-km long new transmission lines with a 132-kv transmission capacity. Of this line, 12 km will be on Bangladesh side while 20-23 km on India's.
As per an assessment, power from Palatana will come to Comilla to get connected with Bangladesh's national grid.
At present, Bangladesh has a power substation at the border point under Comilla-North power supply system. But the existing substation will require to be upgraded to receive Palatana's power from Indian grid system.
Officials said a lot of technical works need to be done to synchronise Indian power system with the Bangladesh's grid.
They said India's 100 MW of electricity may not be connected with the main power system in the country's eastern district of Comilla as this area is considered to be very sensitive from security point of view as the country's one of the largest cantonment is located there.
They said there might be a separate system to consume Indian 100 MW power in non-sensitive areas. According to them, the tariff of the electricity that will come from Tripura is yet to be determined.
They hoped that it will be cheaper than that of the 500 MW being imported from Indian eastern grid as the production cost of Palatana Plant is much lower because of its gas-burnt electricity.
Of the existing 500 MW power, Bangladesh imports half of it from Indian public sector at a rate of nearly Tk 4.50 while the rest is bought at about Tk 6.50 per unit.
The officials informed that the tariff issue is expected to be discussed and determined at the upcoming JSC meeting in New Delhi.