The state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) is working to develop an alternative transmission line to evacuate 600 megawatt (MW) of electricity from Payra coal-fired power plant.
The substitute line is required as installation of the original transmission line is getting delayed.
"We're trying to develop an alternative transmission line to evacuate around 600MW electricity to Khulna region after this December," PGCB managing director Golam Kibria told the FE on Wednesday.
Sources said the country's largest 1,320MW plant is running at its half capacity generating around 600MW for an inadequate line to evacuate electricity.
The original line, as designed under the project, is supposed to cross the Padma river, but six necessary electricity towers are yet to be built.
Besides, construction of a necessary electricity substation at Gopalganj is yet to be completed.
The PGCB has planned to complete the substation work by December and subsequently evacuate around 600MW of electricity through the alternative transmission line of Khulna region, said Mr Kibria.
The Payra plant initiated commercial operation of its second 660MW unit last December, around one year after
the initial commissioning schedule, totalling its production capacity at 1,320MW from two units.
The first unit went into commercial operation in May 2020, around eleven months after the initial schedule for operation in June 2019.
The Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL), a 50-50 joint venture between North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC), has executed the project.
The consortium of China Energy Engineering Group, Northeast Electric Power Construction Co Ltd, and China National Energy Engineering and Construction Co Ltd was the engineering, procurement and construction contractor of the project.
It was implemented on a 30:70 equity debt ratio, meaning the NWPGCL and the CMC provided 30-per cent fund of the total project cost and mobilised the remaining 70 per cent from external sources.
Payra is the lone local plant to run on imported coal.
The BCPCL is now importing coal from Indonesia. It has also a plan to import coal from Australia.
The plant has commitment to use bituminous and sub-bituminous coal, and its expected efficiency level is 48.05 per cent.
It will require an estimated 12,000 tonnes of coal daily to generate electricity.
The BCPCL provided 20-per cent equity to implement the project and the remaining 80 per cent is being sourced as loan from Exim Bank of China.
The government issued a state guarantee worth $1.0 billion in favour of the Chinese loan for implementing the project.
It allocated around 998.77 acres of land for the project on a turnkey basis.
BCPCL, the owner of the plant, had inked the $1.56-billion contract with the consortium for the plant near Payra seaport in Patuakhali district on March 29, 2016.
The initial talks to execute the project started around five years back with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the NWPGCL and the CMC on March 19, 2014.
Its land development and protection involving Tk 7.83 billion was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on October 21, 2014.
azizjst@yahoo.com