4 power plants await formal opening by PM
Two of these plants are gas-fired and owned by the government, while the other two are heavy fuel oil or furnace oil-based power plants that belong to private companies
Four new power plants are in the queue to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina.
Power plants are – Bibiyana-III 400 MW CCPP, Sylhet 150 MW (Conversion), Juldha 100 MW Unit-2 and Meghnaghat 104 MW PP.
The first two of these are gas-fired plants and owned by the government, while the latter two are heavy fuel oil (HFO) or furnace oil-based power plants that belong to private companies.
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Md Belayet Hossain, chairman at Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), told The Business Standard that the board has sent the list to the Power Division of the Ministry of Power Energy and Mineral Resources seeking the prime minister's schedule.
"The Power Division will send a summary to the prime minister's office for her schedule. We are hopeful about getting a date in the next month," said the BPDB chairman.
Of the new power plants, the BPDB-owned Sylhet 150 MW Conversion and Acorn Infrastructure Service Ltd's Juldha 100 MW Unit-2 started commercial operation from 14 March and 20 March this year respectively.
Meanwhile, Meghnaghat 104 MW PP, sponsored by Orion Power Sonargaon Ltd, started commercial operation on 30 June this year.
Bibiyana-III 400 MW CCPP started operation in September last year.
Currently, the country has 138 power plants with a combined capacity to generate 20,383 megawatts electricity (excluding captive power).
However, 56% of the total production capacity has remained idle due to poor demand for which the BPDB has been incurring more than $1 billion losses per annum.
