BD to import 100MW from Tripura by Dec

Bangladesh will start importing an additional 100 megawatt (MW) of electricity from the Palatana power plant in Indian state of Tripura by December this year aiming to meet the mounting local demand for electricity, said officials.
"We are now constructing necessary electricity transmission line to import the electricity from Tripura," Managing Director of state-run Power Generation Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Masum-Al-Beruni told the FE Tuesday.
He said electricity from the Palatana power plant will reach Bangladesh through Jangalia of Comilla.
The government is spending around Tk 2.0 billion to complete construction of the transmission line, he said.
"No sub-station will be required to be constructed to import the electricity as the volume is not that much," he said.
Bangladesh helped significantly to install the Palatana power plant allowing ensuring smooth passage of heavy project equipment and turbines to its site through its territory by road and waterways from Haldia port of West Bengal.
A 24-kilometre new transmission line will be required to be set up on the Indian side and a 27-km one on the Bangladesh side to ensure electricity import from Tripura.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India has commissioned its biggest-ever 726 megawatt (MW) capacity gas-fired commercial power project at Palatana in southern Tripura, 60km south of Agartala in December last year.
Supplying power from Tripura to Bangladesh will be similar to the already functioning system between West Bengal's Behrampur and Bheramara in Bangladesh, said a senior official of the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR).
Bangladesh is currently importing around 450 MW of electricity through the 400 kilo volt (kv) transmission system from Behrampur to Bheramara in Bangladesh.
The country's overall electricity generation is now hovering around 5,000 megawatts (MW) during off-peak hours and 6,500 MW during peak hours.
But with the rise in mercury and the approaching irrigation season, the electricity demand would go up substantially, said the official.
The Power Division has already estimated that the country's electricity demand would soar to 8,100 MW during the upcoming irrigation season starting from March 1.
Due to slow implementation of large base- load power plants, the government would have to rely mostly on high-cost rental and quick rental power plants to meet the mounting electricity demand.
The growing dependency on expensive oil-fired power plants would be harmful to the country's overall economy, said Energy Adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Professor M Shamsul Alam.
"The government's spending as power subsidy would increase further if the low-cost base-load power plants do not come up immediately," he warned.
The Finance Division has already disbursed subsidy of Tk 38.04 billion to the power sector during the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2014-15 until January against the overall allocation of Tk 70 billion for the whole year.
Given the rate of spending with the summer and irrigation season approaching it would be impossible to keep the power subsidy within the allocated limit, said Mr Alam.
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