Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has taken up a Tk 12.26 billion project to increase its power transmission capacity, officials said on Saturday.
They said PGCB has recently sought approval for the proposed China-funded project 'renovation and capacity enhancement of existing grid substations and transmission lines'.
Under the project, the state-run grid company will mainly replace high-voltage substations and install capacitor banks.
It will also re-conduct 132-kilovolt (kV) 218-kilometre double-circuit line and 48-km single-circuit transmission line and install some fresh grid lines.
"We've already sent a project proposal to the Planning Commission (PC) for getting approval," said a senior PGCB official.
As the power generation capacity of Bangladesh has gone up and some big power plants will be commissioned within the next 2-3 years, he said, the capacity of the transmission system needs to be upgraded.
The PGCB official said some of the foreign donor-funded ongoing power transmission line projects will not be completed within the stipulated time which will make the existing grid line overloaded.
"So, we have taken up the government-funded Tk 12.26 billion project to improve the existing transmission capacity in different places of Bangladesh," he added.
According to the project proposal, PGCB will replace 18 substations for upgrading their capacity, install 33kV capacitor banks at 17 substations in different places across the country.
Another PGCB official said the power transmission system in Bangladesh will have to be improved a lot because of higher power generation and distribution targets.
"The government agencies have been working to set up some big coal-fired power plants and a 2000-megawatt (MW) capacity nuclear power plant. So, the current transmission system will not be able to evacuate electricity and transmit it," said the official.
Currently, all the power generation units in Bangladesh supply some 11,000MW of power on an average daily.
The PGCB official said the power generation capacity of Bangladesh will reach some 20,000MW by 2021.
So, it is imperative to upgrade the existing power grid as well as install some high-voltage power transmission grids across the country, he added.
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