A little headway has been made in the last three years in the installation of imported coal-fired power plants by public-private investors, officials concerned said.
A meeting of power division and Power Development Board officials on Thursday was told that the government’s projection of 10,000MW power to be generated by coal-fired plants by 2020 is unlikely to be achieved.
The government has made a plan to implement
the projects by private entrepreneurs and foreign public sector companies in joint-venture with its Power Development Board to reduce the pressure of huge government investment in the sector.
Experts and officials said that the projects were very important for the country’s power sector amid severe shortage of gas and such plants would reduce the dependence on expensive fuel oil-fired plants.
The government has expected the generation of 766MW power by 2014, about 1,500MW by 2015, about 3,100MW by 2016 and 4,000MW by 2017.
The government has been dealing with the installation of seven imported coal-based power plants with a combined generation capacity of 5,750MW on priority basis since 2010.
None of the projects has so far managed the finance and environmental clearances, though owners of two projects have already started preparing the sites, the meeting chaired by state minister for energy and mineral resources ministry Md Enamul Huq was told.
The officials also told the meeting that the Power Development Board had to go for a re-tender for six of such plants with a combined capacity of about 3,000MW in 2012, as no private entrepreneurs responded to the tender in 2011. The bids of the re-tender are yet to be evaluated, while most of the plants were expected to be installed by 2015.
Orion, a local private power company, is set to install a 565MW plant at Khulna and a 552MW plant at Mawa in Munshiganj.
The meeting discussed a letter sent to power division by Orion seeking extension of deadline for its financial closure, as the deadline would expire on Sunday.
On June 27, 2012, the PDB signed power purchase agreement with Orion to buy electricity from the company’s two coal-fired plants for 25 years.
The Khulna plant is expected to start power generation in June, 26, 2015 while the Mawa plant in March 26, 2016.
According to sources, the meeting was also told that Orion was yet to receive environmental clearance from the authority concerned.
Orion, however, started developing land for the Mawa project.
Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, a joint-venture between the power board and Indian National Thermal Power Corporation, is yet to sign a power sales/purchase deal with the PDB for its 1,320MW plant, the meeting sources said.
The company will install the plant at Rampal in Bagerhat near Sundarban. Green activists and a faction of experts have been asking the government to relocate the project elsewhere because the coal-fired plant could destroy the Sundarban, the world’s largest mangrove forest.
The authorities has yet to set a deadline for the installation of the plant due to bilateral interests in the joint-venture company, controversial location of the project and uncertainty of financing, a power board official told New Age.
The company, however, started preparing the site.
Among other projects, the government is still searching for the sponsor for installation of a 1,320MW plant in Chittagong. It is yet to acquire land for the project.
Japan International Cooperation Agency is conducting a feasibility study at Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar to set up a number of imported coal-fired power plants there.
The agency is expected to install a 1,320MW power plant at Maheshkhali, officials said.
Besides, two local entrepreneurs, Chittagong Power Company Limited and Beximco Power Company Limited, are also stuck at the initial stage of their projects as they are yet to arrange the finance.
CPCL will install a 150MW plant at Mirsarai and BPCL will install a 540MW plant at Boalkhali in Chittagong by 2015. (Source)
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