Payra coal-fired power plant, the country's largest electricity generation unit, is waiting for a rise in mercury for higher demand of electricity to initiate commercial operation from its 660 megawatt, or MW, unit.
The plant, owned by Bangladesh-China Power Company Ltd, or BCPCL, is now on a trial run and generated electricity as high as 550 MW.
But to continue electricity generation commercially there must have sufficient electricity demand, BCPCL managing director A M Khurshedul Alam told the FE Monday.
Otherwise, the plant will not be able to operate successfully, he said.
"We have submitted necessary papers to obtain commercial date of operation, or COD," he said.
The plant is ready to generate electricity in its full capacity, he said, adding, it will generate electricity in its full capacity of 660MW today( Monday) on test basis.
He refuted the impact of 'coronavirus' for delay in its commercial operation saying most of its works have been completed before the spread of the deadly disease in and around China.
Officials said the BPDB, the buyer of electricity from power producers, provides COD before commercial operation of power plants.
The BPDB is now asking the operational power plants to limit electricity output to cope with the 'over capacity' of power plants paying penalty as 'capacity charge,' said a senior BPDB official.
According to the BPDB statistics as of February 26, countrywide electricity generation during day peak hours was 7,468 MW, which is only 38 per cent of total installed capacity of 19,630 MW.
Electricity generation during evening peak hours on February 26 was 9,075 MW, which was 46.23 per cent of the total installed capacity.
The BCPCL, a 50:50 joint venture between the state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Ltd, or NWPGCL, and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, or CMC, is implementing the power plant project.
The Payra coal-fired power plant is the country's first power plant to be run on imported coal.
The consortium of the China Energy Engineering Group, the Northeast Electric Power Construction Co Ltd, and the China National Energy Engineering & Construction Co Ltd is implementing the power plant as the engineering, procurement and construction, or EPC, contractor.
The EPC contract between the BCPCL and the consortium was inked on March 29, 2016.
The EPC contractor will have to invest 15 per cent of the EPC cost from its own resources, which will be reimbursed after financial closing, as per the deal.
The project is being implemented on a 30:70 equity debt ratio, meaning the NWPGCL and the CMC will have to provide 30 per cent fund of the total project cost, and mobilise the remaining 70 per cent from external sources.
The plant will use bituminous and sub-bituminous coal, and its expected efficiency level is 48.05 per cent. It will require around 12,000 tonnes of coal daily to generate electricity.
The BCPCL is providing 20 per cent equity to implement the power plant project, and the remaining 80 per cent is being sourced as loan from Exim Bank of China.
The government has issued a state guarantee worth US$ 1.0 billion in favour of the Chinese loan for implementing the power plant project. The government has allocated around 998.77 acres of land for implementing the project on turnkey basis.
The initial talks to implement the power plant started around five years back with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the NWPGCL and the CMC on March 19, 2014.
Its land development and protection project involving Tk 7.83 billion was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on October 21, 2014.
