PDB signs deals for 5 rental power plant

Dhaka: The Power Development Board on Wednesday signed agreements with two companies for the installation of five costly rental power plants within 120 days to add 200 MW of electricity to the national grid by this summer, when the demand for power reaches its peak.

However, the fate of the agreements for two other rental plants with a combined capacity of 60 MW has become uncertain as the two other selected companies demanded changes in some terms of the agreements at the last moment before signing them.

The representatives of the PDB and a consortium of Energy Prima, Hosaf Meter Industry and Geo-Spectrum Group signed four agreements for the installation of the Shahjibazar 50 MW, Kumargaon 50 MW, Fenchuganj 50 MW and Bogra 20 MW power plants on a build-own-operate basis, while the representatives of the board and a joint venture of Kaltimax Energy and GBB Power signed an agreement for setting up the 30 MW Bhola power plant.

The newly appointed special assistant to the chief adviser for the power and energy ministry, M Tamim, the power secretary, M Fouzul Kabir Khan, and other high officials of the Power Division, PDB and Power Cell were present at the signing
ceremony at DESA Bhaban.

The signing of agreements for two diesel-run rental power plants — the 40 MW Khulna and 20 MW Bherama plants — could not be completed on Wednesday as the two selected companies, Agreeko International Projects and Alstom Power International, demanded changes in some terms of the agreement on penalty issues.

The representatives of Alstom and Agreeko were discussing the terms of the agreements with their headquarters in the USA and Singapore till the filing of this report at 9pm.

Fouzul told reporters that they had completed negotiations with all the four companies for setting up seven power plants with a combined capacity of 260 MW. ‘I hope that agreements for the two other plants will be signed soon. We have made our position clear to the selected companies and are not going to change it. They have to drop their demands if they want the work order,’ he told reporters.

Fouzul said that around 260 MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by mid-May from these seven power plants.

The PDB will pay 4.517 US cents for each unit of power to Shahjibazar, 4.148 cents to Kumargaon, 4.65 cents to Fenchuganj, 3.6 cents to Bogra, 5.198 cents to Bhola, 19.71 cents to Khulna and 21.77 cents to Bheramara power plants.

Fouzul said that although they know the electricity from these plants will be costly in comparison with the price paid to PDB’s own power plants, they had no other option but to set up the plants to tackle the electricity crisis in the summer. ‘A number of large power plants will come into operation by the next two to three years. In the meantime we need emergency supply of electricity to reduce power shortage,’ he said.

Tamim said that the price of the electricity of short-term power plants was usually higher than that of long-term power plants that are set up for twenty years. ‘I think these contracts are not bad as the prices of electricity from these rental plants are not that high,’ he said.

Both Tamim and Fouzul hoped that they would be able to mitigate somewhat the electricity crisis in the summer with the help of these plants.