21 south-western dists reel under power crisis
All 4 units of Goalpara plant, 2 barge mounted plants in Khulna silent: 294 MW supplied on Friday against need for 652
Unbearable loadshedding at short intervals has made life miserable in 21 south-western districts, also badly affecting the economy.
All the four power plants of state-owned Goalpara power station are out of order, creating severe power shortage in 10 districts of Khulna division, six of Barisal division and five districts of greater Faridpur.
On Friday, 221 megawatt power was supplied in the 21 districts against the off-peak hour requirement of 374 megawatt, sources here said.
The supply during peak hours was 294 megawatt against a requirement of 652 megawatt, they said.
The 110 megawatt power plant, termed by engineers as a 'cancer' in the chest of Goalpara plant is now beyond any treatment due to its old age.
The 110 megawatt plant installed by Czechoslovakia and put into operation in 1984 became inoperative 24 times in last 14 months as it lost its capacity to generate power steadily due to technical glitches.
The 24 year-old power plant fell silent again Thursday midnight due to leakages in all its boiler tubes.
Use of saline water from Bhairab river to cool down the heated boiler tubes is the lone cause of its frequent silence, sources said.
Leakages develop in wall tubes of the boiler after being treated with saline water, said Nirmal Chandra Ghosal, chief engineer of Goalpara power station said. “The plant is of no use as it has lost generation capacity because of outdated machines”, he said.
“I can not give you any correct information when this limping plant will go into operation again and then go out of order”, he said.
The 60 megawatt unit in Goalpara plant which went into operation on May 25, 1973 remained inoperative since July 5, 2006. The plant made by Germany is still undergoing overhauling and is expected to be operational by December, the chief engineer said.
The Japan-made barge mounted power plant 1 having a capacity to generate 28 MW power, put into operation on June 3, 1980, is also out of order since August 27, 2006 following a fire accident.
Another 28 MW barge mounted power plant-2, put into operation on June 7, 2006, is also silent since December 3 last year due to mechanical fault.
Chief Engineer Nirmal Ghosal said the private-owned Khulna Power Company Limited (KPCL) can not generate more than 60 megawatt electricity.
He said there is no possibility of putting the two barge mounted power plants into operation in near future as spare parts required to repair those are not available in the country now. “None so far responded despite international tender to supply spare parts”, he said.
“But I can assure you that a 40 megawatt rental power plant will be going into operation in Khulna from May 28 this year”, he told this correspondent.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments