Anisul Islam Noor :
Asian Development Bank in its evaluation report has emphasized to use imported coal in the country’s power plants as its price is 27 percent lower from the domestic coal.
The report titled ‘Energy Security’ submitted recently to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources suggesting to use imported coat for power generation.
The ADB prepared the report based on the cost analysis of a 1200MW power plant showing that cost of electricity generation from imported coal cost will be Tk 6.56 per unit while local coal cost will be Tk 7.65 per unit. That means Tk 1.09 will be lower if imported coal is used, the report said.
The report said, to build a 1200MW capacity power plant, a proximate cost will be USD $ 130 crore and additional $3 crore for maintenance. Such power plant’s life time would be 30 years.
The cost of imported coal will be around $ 85 dollar per tonne and calorific
value of per kilogram coal is 5500 kilocalories. In the Power Sector Master Plan, it has outlined to generate 5,400 (19,200) MW electricity from coal-based power plants by 2021 (2030) to provide affordable electricity in Bangladesh using local coal together with imported coal.
In the current context, policy makers depend on imported coal-based power plants instead of extraction of proven reserves from local coal mines. The paper performs a comparative analysis between local and imported coal in terms of different assessment criteria to search for an economically viable option for coal-fired power plants.
Considering the constraints related to coal import, recent policy decision required further revision to set the strategy to use efficient local-imported coal-mix. In this regard, integrated strategy for electricity generation-mix, coal import strategy, and all-inclusive coal policy would be a decisive policy imperative that confronts the coal-mix dilemma with the efficient use of local and imported coal to meet ever-growing power demand.
Asian Development Bank in its evaluation report has emphasized to use imported coal in the country’s power plants as its price is 27 percent lower from the domestic coal.
The report titled ‘Energy Security’ submitted recently to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources suggesting to use imported coat for power generation.
The ADB prepared the report based on the cost analysis of a 1200MW power plant showing that cost of electricity generation from imported coal cost will be Tk 6.56 per unit while local coal cost will be Tk 7.65 per unit. That means Tk 1.09 will be lower if imported coal is used, the report said.
The report said, to build a 1200MW capacity power plant, a proximate cost will be USD $ 130 crore and additional $3 crore for maintenance. Such power plant’s life time would be 30 years.
The cost of imported coal will be around $ 85 dollar per tonne and calorific
value of per kilogram coal is 5500 kilocalories. In the Power Sector Master Plan, it has outlined to generate 5,400 (19,200) MW electricity from coal-based power plants by 2021 (2030) to provide affordable electricity in Bangladesh using local coal together with imported coal.
In the current context, policy makers depend on imported coal-based power plants instead of extraction of proven reserves from local coal mines. The paper performs a comparative analysis between local and imported coal in terms of different assessment criteria to search for an economically viable option for coal-fired power plants.
Considering the constraints related to coal import, recent policy decision required further revision to set the strategy to use efficient local-imported coal-mix. In this regard, integrated strategy for electricity generation-mix, coal import strategy, and all-inclusive coal policy would be a decisive policy imperative that confronts the coal-mix dilemma with the efficient use of local and imported coal to meet ever-growing power demand.
