Govt to select JV Co’s for power plants

Dhaka: The government’s purchase committee on Sunday approved selection of a joint-venture company for setting up a 50 megawatts short-term rental power plant at Ashuganj, the latest in a series of such costly plants to be set up to ease power shortages.

The committee also approved purchase of 6,600 transformers for Rural Electrification Board under a DFID-funded project for nine Palli Bidyut Samities.

The committee, headed by finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, gave nod to the selection of a joint venture of Green Power and Concord-Pragati of Bangladesh and Neva AB of Sweden for installation of the ready-made plant for three years.

The joint venture will charge 4.78 cents for per unit of electricity it will sell to the Power Development Board after the plant is installed in 120 days following the signing of the agreement.

The PDB has so far signed agreements for setting up six rental plants – three 50MW at Shahjibazar, Kumargaon and Fenchuganj, one 30MW at Bhola, one 20MW at Bogra and one diesel-run 20MW plant at Bheramara. The signing of the agreement for 40MW Khulna power plant, approved by the purchase committee, has become uncertain as the selected bidder demanded changes in some agreement clauses.

Among the gas-based power plants, the price of Ashuganj plant is second highest as the PDB will pay 5.198 cents for Bhola power, 4.65 cents for Fenchuganj, 4.517 cents for Shahjibazar, 4.148 for Kumargaon and 3.6 cents for Bogra.

The purchase committee also approved the Rural Electrification Board proposal for procuring 6,600 transformers at a cost of Tk 27.1 crore for nine PBS as part of the on-going projects of REB.

It gave nod to a Tk 14 crore land development project for construction of a jail in Keraniganj and a Tk 9.47 crore proposal for appointing an agency to help reform the management and policies of the health and family welfare ministry.

In a post-meeting briefing, the adviser said a plan for setting up a 100MW unit of the proposed 150MW combined cycle power plant in Sylhet, which was also on the day’s agenda, could not be discussed as the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, who is in charge of the power ministry, is on a tour abroad.