The government's plan to add 383 MW of electricity from the Bibiyana South power plant to the national grid by December this year has become uncertain as one of the project contractors has not completed the tasks assigned to it on time. On December 15, 2014, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) signed a USD 288.26-million contract with Isolux Ingenieria SA of Spain and Samsung C&T Corporation of South Korea for the construction of the 383-MW gas-based combined cycle Bibiyana South Power Plant in Habiganj.
However, Isolux Ingenieria SA had desisted from carrying out construction at the plant citing security concerns, which arose after the terrorist attack at a Gulshan café on July 1.
Since then, the Spanish company has been dilly-dallying in completing its assigned tasks, and has repeatedly given the excuse of security reasons. The company had also written to the project director of the power plant, Khorshed Alam, mentioning their concerns about security.
As a PDB official told The Independent, such concerns over security were “not right” because in the wake of the Gulshan incident, the government has ensured utmost security measures for foreigners in Bangladesh.
The project director of the power plant told The Independent that Isolux Ingenieria SA of Spain has submitted the project's bill through invoices and it was refraining from working on the project without any valid reason.
“There is at present no concern over security issues. The government has deployed sufficient number of Ansar and police personnel, but the company is not doing its work,” he added.
Meanwhile, irked by the Spanish company’s procrastination, the Power Division had asked the PDB to blacklist the Spanish company for future projects.
PDB is now heading in that direction and is planning to go forward with the project with only South Korean Samsung C&T Corporation as the sole contractor, sources said.
However, if Samsung C&T Corporation does not want to alone take up the responsibility, the PDB will call for a fresh tender for the project, sources added.
The PDB had also asked both the companies to discuss the issue between themselves and report to them within a week so that it can take a decision.
Under the original plan, the project’s simple cycle unit was supposed to come into production in December 2016 and the combined cycle unit in June 2017.
The project cost was estimated at USD 322.96 m, while the efficient power conversion (EPC) value was set at USD 288.26m.
The gas-fired combined cycle power plant project’s total net generation capacity will be 383.51 MW through its combination of simple cycle and combined cycle units.
The production cost of electricity in the project will be Tk. 1.13 kilowatt per hour (kWh) considering the plant factor at 85 per cent, while the power tariff was estimated at Tk. 4.70 per unit. The project’s lifetime has been fixed at 25 years. The power plant will consume around 60 mmcfd gas, which will be supplied from the Bibiyana gas field. The power plant is the first of its kind, being constructed by the Electricity Maintenance and Development Fund, a fund created by money paid by consumers as electricity bills. While hiking the electricity price in 2012, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) tagged a condition for electricity distribution companies that they have to deposit a portion of the bills to the fund, in order to facilitate development of the power sector.
So far, some Tk. 4,000 crore has been deposited in the specialised fund.