The government has shown the green light to a local company, Barakat Ullah Patanga Power Limited, to construct a costly 105MV furnace oil-based power plant at Chittagong's Shikolbaha. Last week, the Power Division decided to award two fuel-based power plant projects to two consortiums having no experience in the power sector, allegedly under political pressure. The combined capacity of the plants is 362 MW. Sources told The Independent that the proposals of two consortiums, PPV Energy (Paramount-Primodal V Energy) and Chang Zu Power, have been finalised.
“We don’t know how many fuel-based plants will be coming up in the next few years as the government continues to give green signals to interested companies,” said an official of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). Sources said Barakat Ullah Patenga got the government’s permission to set up a 105-MW furnace oil plant even without filing a tender. The proposal would be soon placed before the negotiating committee, headed by the power secretary.
Last month, the power division had finalised that the unsolicited diesel-based 200-MW PPV Energy plant would sell power at 17.15 cent per unit to the BPDB and that the proposal would be sent to the cabinet committee on purchase soon.
Lawmaker Naimur Rahman Durjoy is said to be behind the proposal of the 162-MW furnace oil-based Chang Zu power plant at Manikganj, the MP’s constituency.
Sources said that a local company, Doreen Power, will ultimately take over the 162-MW plant as Doreen’s officials were actively pursuing the proposals.
Last month, it was finalised that the Manikganj plant would sell power at 10.50 cent per unit to the BPDB, but they later backtracked. The proposal will again be placed at the negotiation committee meeting to be held tomorrow.
The committee will also negotiate the proposal of a 700-MW LNG-based united power plant to be set up at Chittagong.
In July this year the Power Division awarded contracts for the generation of 1,800 MW of fuel-based power to nine unsolicited power projects to meet the country’s electricity demands next summer. The projects include the production of 800MW of diesel-based electricity at a high cost.
The generation of 1800MW power will cost Tk 10,000 crore annually, raising the losses incurred by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
Out of the total amount of power, 800MW of diesel-based power will cost Tk. 7,000 crore, while the rest, furnace-oil-based power, will cost Tk. 3,350 crore,
a BPDB official told The Independent. Among the approved furnace-oil-based proposals, the Summit Group has agreed to set up a 300MW plant in Kodda; Confidence Power has planned to set up a 113MW plant in Bagura; Midland has wanted to install a 150MW plant in Asuganj; Orion has expressed the intention to set up a 100MW plant in Khulna; Acorn has intended to set up a 100MW plant in Julda; and Desh Energy has promised to set up a 200MW plant in Chadpur.
The price of selling power to the government was fixed at 10.50 cent to 10.65 cent per unit in the previous tender held on November 6, 2016.
The government official said only low-profile companies had agreed to sell power at that price.
Confident Power and Midlant Power would sell the power they would generate at 10.50 cent, while the others would do so at 10.60 to 10.65 cent.
Among the diesel-based power plant proposals accepted by the committee are Acorn’s 300MW rental plants at Daudkandi and Nowapara, Aggreko’s 200 MW plant at Karanigonj, and APR’s 300MW plant.
The selling price of diesel-based power will be more than Tk. 20 per unit, for which the consumer pays, on an average, Tk. 4.90 per unit.
Of the Tk. 20, the rental plants, for a five-year period, will get 17.25 or 14 taka cent per unit as capacity payment. It means that they will get Tk. 14 per unit as rental cost even if the government does not buy power
from them.