Anisul Islam Noor :
Bangladesh on Saturday finalized Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Indian’s State of Tripura. According to the deal, the per unit price of electricity will be US $ 0.8 only equivalent to Tk 6.6. In the meeting, both sides agreed on the price.
The country will import more than 100 megawatt of electricity from the Palatana Power Plant of Tripura, the import whereof is expected to start from February.
The State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, Secretary Monowar Islam, Additional Secretary Dr Ahmed Kawas, Tripura’s Power minister Manik Dey, Chief Secretary SK Rakesh, and Director of Power Division of Tripura Ghanosham Proshad were present on the occasion held in a city hotel.
“There is no capacity bill. We will pay bills for importing per unit of electricity,” said Monowar Islam to the reporters after the meeting.
Chief Engineer (Planning and Design) Arun Kumar Saha of Power Grid Company Bangladesh (PGCB), which is the gridline implementing agency in Bangladesh, said that they had successfully set up a 27km transmission line on the Bangladesh side.
The Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) has also successfully completed setting up of another 24km transmission line on the Indian side. Arun Saha said, both companies successfully tested the grid line so far.
PGCB tested the grid line on the Bangladesh side on Dec 21, while PGCIL tested the grid line on the Indian side on Dec 20.
The PDB source also said that India had been demanding a much higher price for the electricity generated from its gas-fired power plant. As a result, the matter was sent to Prime Minister Office. Later a five-member committee was formed to settle the price of power.
Since October 2013, Bangladesh has been importing 500MW electricity through 400 kV transmission line and HVDC Substation as part of cross border trade between India and Bangladesh. Two hundred fifty unit is purchased from the Indian government at RS 2.46, and remaining 250 from private sector at RS 5.46. Capacity charge is paid as additional bills.
