Anisul Islam Noor :
The government has decided in principle to allow 10 to 12 new liquid fuel-based power projects having capacity of generating 1350MW of electricity as the owners of 12 private sponsored plants could not start power generation even in long time.
According to the Power Development Board (PDB) estimation, Tk 9,931 crore will be required annually for purchasing 54,000 million units of electricity at Tk 6.58 per unit of electricity from the proposed projects, a power division official said.
State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid said, “Power Division is now working to cancel the Letter of Intents (LoIs), as the sponsors failed to comply with its terms and conditions.” The 12 private plants have been found responsible for making the government’s power sector master plan ineffective, the state minister said.
The 12 failed projects are 108MW Basila power project, 108MW Gabtali power project, 99.38MW Keraniganj power project, 55MW Manikganj power project, 52.5MW Alirtak power project, 55MW Narayanganj power project, 22MW Tangail power project, 149MW Kaliakoir power project, 54.36MW Satkhira power project, 53.97MW Kamalaghat power project, 367MW and 217.9MW Sirajganj power projects.
The power division proposal said that the proposed projects would help rise
power generation till 2021 to meet growing consumption before commencement of the coal-fired projects.
According to the power-system master plan of Bangladesh-2010, the government would require 24,000MW of power by 2021 and 40,000MW by 2030. The government would have to achieve its electricity generation target of 16,000MW by 2016, but it now has capacity to generate 10,341MW of power.
The country might face a wider shortfall of electricity if the proposal is not considered, according to the power division. The government has so far installed 35 oil based power projects having capacity of generating 2549MW of electricity.
As per its plan, the government would generate 30 percent of required power from coal-fired power projects, which would require longer time. As such, the government is preferring oil based power projects for the present, the proposal said.
The Awami League led government during its last tenure signed deals with different companies for setting up 40 oil-fired power projects. Most of those projects are now already in operation, but some of the projects have failed.
