SS Power Plant goes into commercial operation

The 1320-megawatt SS Power Plant in Gondamara of Chattogram's Banshkhali successfully started commercial power generation on Monday (18 September).

Starting at 12:01am, one of the plant's two 660-megawatt units began supplying electricity to the national grid at full capacity.

Officials from the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) conducted inspections at the power plant before this milestone.

Chief Financial Officer of SS Power Plant Md Ebadat Hossain Bhuiyan, said, "With the cooperation of PDB and all concerned, we have started commercial production at the SS Power Plant, and that electricity is being added to the national grid." 

The power plant started its official connection to the national grid on 14 January, with the first and second units undergoing test runs on 24 May and 28 June respectively.

Bangladesh's S Alam Group has a 70% stake in the power plant while SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Corporation and HTG Development Group have 30% stake.

The SS Power Plant is the first sizable private coal-based thermal electricity project in the nation to receive an investment of as much as $2.6 billion (Tk28,000 crore) from a single private entity.

This power station will produce electricity at a lower cost than other power plants. It is anticipated to produce roughly 293 million units of electricity per day and about 880 million units per month at its maximum output.

Following the signing of an agreement between the BPDB and SS Power, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping jointly launched the project for the SS Power Plant in 2016.