Payra power plant ready to operate at full blast

The 1,320 MW coal-fired Payra power plant in Patuakhali district's Kalapara upazila is ready to operate at full blast, reports UNB.

Officials said the second unit of the plant, a joint venture between Bangladesh and China, has attained its generation capacity of 660 MW over the past three months and is now ready for commercial operation.

"The second unit is ready. We'll soon put forward our proposal to the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to start operation," Shah Abdul Maula, project director of Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL), told the news agency.

BCPCL, a joint venture between state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, has set up the plant at $2 billion as part of a development partnership.

After undergoing test runs for about five months, the first unit of the Payra power plant started commercial operation in May this year.

And if both the units are allowed to operate simultaneously, the plant will jointly generate 1320 MW electricity, thus setting a milestone in the country's power sector. So far, 450 MW of power has been generated from a single power plant in Bangladesh.

Though the authorities have recently undertaken a number of transmission projects to facilitate evacuation of electricity from the Payra power project, officials are not hopeful of getting a nod for simultaneous operation of the two units.