Four coal-fired power plants to be set up
Thursday, 24 September 2009
M Azizur Rahman
The government has planned to set up four coal-fired power plants having a combined generation capacity of 2,000 megawatts (mw) at a cost of Tk 210 billion in a major drive to diversify the country's energy sources.
"The plants, each having the generation capacity of 500mw, would be built by independent power producers from home and abroad," Chairman of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) ASM Alamgir Kabir told the FE.
He said BPDB has already initiated the groundbreaking works for installation of these coal-fired power plants.
The country would import coals from abroad to run the coal-fired plants as the output from the lone operative Baropukuria coalmine won't be sufficient.
The BPDB has primarily selected the sites at Chittagong on the bank of Karnaphuli, Khulna near Mongla seaport, Jazira on the bank of Padma and at Meghnaghat on the bank of Meghna.
The BPDB chairman said an international tender for setting up the coal-fired power plants would be floated within the next six months.
A senior power ministry official said the plants would be set up under the new concept of the private public partnership (PPP) where the government might own a fraction of the share offering land and infrastructure, while the majority are to be owned by private sector.
The government would sign contracts with the bid winners to purchase electricity for at least 25 years.
Installation of the four coal-fired power plants is a part of the government's mega plan as envisaged recently to develop the country's power sector through investments worth Tk 410 billion.
The government has stepped up efforts to set up four coal-fired power plants as the long-reliant energy source -the natural gas - is drying out fast with the state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla projecting emptying of the present gas reserve by 2019.
With the gas crisis getting worse the government has already floated tenders for installation of 18 diesel and furnace oil-fired power plants to generate a total of 1360mw of electricity.
It has also decided to keep provisions for dual fuels for all the future gas-based power plants in the country.
Currently around 90 per cent of the country's power plants are gas-fired but gas scarcity is forcing a number of them, having a generation capacity of around 600mw -700mw, to close down.
Four per cent power plants are coal-fired, two per cent are diesel and furnace oil-run.
Hydro-electricity accounts for four per cent of the total while power from renewable sources is negligible.
The country's lone 250mw capacity coal-fired power plant at Barapukuria is struggling to generate even half of its installed capacity.
Bangladesh has five coalmines having the coal reserves of around 2.90 billion tonnes but ironically coal extraction is limited to only one mine.
The country is waiting for adoption of a national coal policy to start coal extraction from the four remaining coalmines.
The country's overall electricity generation is now hovering around 3,800mw against the peak hour demand for over 5,500mw.
The government has planned to set up four coal-fired power plants having a combined generation capacity of 2,000 megawatts (mw) at a cost of Tk 210 billion in a major drive to diversify the country's energy sources.
"The plants, each having the generation capacity of 500mw, would be built by independent power producers from home and abroad," Chairman of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) ASM Alamgir Kabir told the FE.
He said BPDB has already initiated the groundbreaking works for installation of these coal-fired power plants.
The country would import coals from abroad to run the coal-fired plants as the output from the lone operative Baropukuria coalmine won't be sufficient.
The BPDB has primarily selected the sites at Chittagong on the bank of Karnaphuli, Khulna near Mongla seaport, Jazira on the bank of Padma and at Meghnaghat on the bank of Meghna.
The BPDB chairman said an international tender for setting up the coal-fired power plants would be floated within the next six months.
A senior power ministry official said the plants would be set up under the new concept of the private public partnership (PPP) where the government might own a fraction of the share offering land and infrastructure, while the majority are to be owned by private sector.
The government would sign contracts with the bid winners to purchase electricity for at least 25 years.
Installation of the four coal-fired power plants is a part of the government's mega plan as envisaged recently to develop the country's power sector through investments worth Tk 410 billion.
The government has stepped up efforts to set up four coal-fired power plants as the long-reliant energy source -the natural gas - is drying out fast with the state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla projecting emptying of the present gas reserve by 2019.
With the gas crisis getting worse the government has already floated tenders for installation of 18 diesel and furnace oil-fired power plants to generate a total of 1360mw of electricity.
It has also decided to keep provisions for dual fuels for all the future gas-based power plants in the country.
Currently around 90 per cent of the country's power plants are gas-fired but gas scarcity is forcing a number of them, having a generation capacity of around 600mw -700mw, to close down.
Four per cent power plants are coal-fired, two per cent are diesel and furnace oil-run.
Hydro-electricity accounts for four per cent of the total while power from renewable sources is negligible.
The country's lone 250mw capacity coal-fired power plant at Barapukuria is struggling to generate even half of its installed capacity.
Bangladesh has five coalmines having the coal reserves of around 2.90 billion tonnes but ironically coal extraction is limited to only one mine.
The country is waiting for adoption of a national coal policy to start coal extraction from the four remaining coalmines.
The country's overall electricity generation is now hovering around 3,800mw against the peak hour demand for over 5,500mw.