Anisul Islam Noor :
The government will soon allow 10 more furnace oil based Independent Power Plants (IPP) taking advantage of oil price fall.
About 44 local and foreign firms have submitted bids to build the 10 power plants of which total generation capacity will be 1000mw.
According to Power Ministry sources Local firms Summit, Orion and United also have applied for the power plants. They got contract of a number of power plants in past.
Some Sri Lankan and Chinese firms have also taken part in the bid at the last moment on Sunday.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) floated tender recently for plants to generate around 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in total with the generation capacity of 100 MW each.
This is BPDB’s first move to implement oil-fired power plant projects after 2011.
In the past five years, it had awarded around two dozens oil-fired power plants, including the rental and quick-rental ones, under a special act bypassing tender, said the officials.
BPDB had to make several amendments to the initial criteria and extended the bid submission deadline twice to accommodate the interested parties in the bidding, keeping the ‘disputed’ provisions unchanged.
The initial deadline for bid submission was June 29, which was extended to July 28 and then August 07.
Under the selection criteria in the bidding, the power companies or their consortiums having ‘litigation’ with BPDB or its off-taker have been barred from dropping bids for the project.
Besides, the interested bidders have been restricted to bidding for two power plants only out of the total 10, and asked to submit bids in a single envelope.
These plants will be set up under the country’s Independent Power Producer (IPP) policy. The sponsors will be entitled to directly import furnace oil to run their power plants.
The government has already waived the import duties for private companies, and also offered nine per cent service charge on the imports.
BPDB aims at getting the power plants in reality within 18 months of inking deals to have around 1,000 MW of electricity in total.
The new power plants are planned to be set up in Chandpur, Chowmuhoni of Noakhali, Feni, Meghnaghat of Narayanganj, Bagerhat, Thakurgaon, Rangpur, Bogra, Shantahar and Jamalpur.
Currently, the private companies supply electricity from 30 oil-fired plants and the public-sector utilities supply electricity from 17 similar plants.
These 47 oil-fired power plants have a combined capacity of generating approximately 3,550 MW of electricity that accounts for around 30 per cent of their total installed generation capacity.
The government will soon allow 10 more furnace oil based Independent Power Plants (IPP) taking advantage of oil price fall.
About 44 local and foreign firms have submitted bids to build the 10 power plants of which total generation capacity will be 1000mw.
According to Power Ministry sources Local firms Summit, Orion and United also have applied for the power plants. They got contract of a number of power plants in past.
Some Sri Lankan and Chinese firms have also taken part in the bid at the last moment on Sunday.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) floated tender recently for plants to generate around 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in total with the generation capacity of 100 MW each.
This is BPDB’s first move to implement oil-fired power plant projects after 2011.
In the past five years, it had awarded around two dozens oil-fired power plants, including the rental and quick-rental ones, under a special act bypassing tender, said the officials.
BPDB had to make several amendments to the initial criteria and extended the bid submission deadline twice to accommodate the interested parties in the bidding, keeping the ‘disputed’ provisions unchanged.
The initial deadline for bid submission was June 29, which was extended to July 28 and then August 07.
Under the selection criteria in the bidding, the power companies or their consortiums having ‘litigation’ with BPDB or its off-taker have been barred from dropping bids for the project.
Besides, the interested bidders have been restricted to bidding for two power plants only out of the total 10, and asked to submit bids in a single envelope.
These plants will be set up under the country’s Independent Power Producer (IPP) policy. The sponsors will be entitled to directly import furnace oil to run their power plants.
The government has already waived the import duties for private companies, and also offered nine per cent service charge on the imports.
BPDB aims at getting the power plants in reality within 18 months of inking deals to have around 1,000 MW of electricity in total.
The new power plants are planned to be set up in Chandpur, Chowmuhoni of Noakhali, Feni, Meghnaghat of Narayanganj, Bagerhat, Thakurgaon, Rangpur, Bogra, Shantahar and Jamalpur.
Currently, the private companies supply electricity from 30 oil-fired plants and the public-sector utilities supply electricity from 17 similar plants.
These 47 oil-fired power plants have a combined capacity of generating approximately 3,550 MW of electricity that accounts for around 30 per cent of their total installed generation capacity.
