2nd 73.8MW rental plant to start power generation in Nov
Plan to set up three more plants of 700MW in Ctg
The second 73.8MW rental power plant at Shikalbaha in Chittagong. The photo was taken on Sunday.Photo: Zobaer Hossain Sikder
The second 73.8megawatt (MW) rental power plant will start its operation from November to rid the port city of acute power crisis, at least to some extent. Energis Power Corporation (EPC), a private company, is setting up the plant at a cost of Tk 260 crore with modern technologies from Germany. Construction work of the furnace oil-fired plant started in January this year on the bank of the river Karnaphuli at Shikalbaha in Patiya upazila. “Installation of equipment with technical assistance from Hong Kong-based farm Royce Power is nearing an end and the plant will be ready for generation before October 30,” EPC Managing Director Jabed Hossain told The Daily Star. “We hope to go into generation by second week of November,” he said. As per the agreement signed with the government, PDB will get 55MW of power to be generated at the plant while the rest can be supplied to private farms, he said. “We had contact with PDB to rent power at Tk 8.87 per unit when the price of furnace oil was $146 per barrel in the international market. However, with the price now hovering around $72 per barrel, the price of per unit power can be reduced significantly,” Jabed said. The price of power would always be determined according to the price of furnace oil in the international market, he added. Meanwhile, construction work of the state-owned 150MW Peaking Power Plant at Shikalbaha is going on in full swing. Sources at PDB said Tk 534 crore power plant is expected to go into generation by February next year. The project was scheduled to complete in December this year. On the other hand, government is going to set up three more power plants with a total production capacity of 700MW in Chittagong. Power Secretary Abul Kalam Azad on October 9 visited the sites for two 100MW plants at Hathazari and at Dohazari. He also visited the proposed site for setting up 500MW coal-fired plant in Parky Sea Beach area under Anwara upazila. PDB Chief Engineer (Planning and Development) Masum Al Beruni said tenders for the furnace-oil fired power plants at Hathazari and Dohazari have already been floated with December 29, 2009 as the last date of tender submission. “We hope to start the construction work by January next year after signing an agreement with the winning bidder by December this year,” he said. Masum said the completion period of the projects is June 2011. Regarding the coal-fired plant of Parky beach area, he said process for appointing consultant for the plant is under process. Mentionable, due to lack of sufficient gas supply and technical glitches, out of 11 power plants in Chittagong, only seven, including the 24MW rental one at Barobkunda, are now operational generating on an average 400MW power against the demand of around 600MW in peak hours. As a result, the consumers of PDB, Chittagong region, including three hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Cox's Bazar, have been facing an average loadshedding of 200MW.
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