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Power supply blues

Bad news zap the good one

Sharier Khan
The good news -- the last major under-implementation power scheme, the 450-megawatt (MW) AES Meghanghat Power Project, would go into commercial operation this October, eight months ahead of the schedule.
The bad news -- the level of load shedding next year would hit an unbearable 600 MW as eight more under-implementation power schemes remain suspended.
Worse still, the load shedding
trauma would escalate from 2004 as no new power schemes are in the pipeline.
Sources said even if the government resumed implementation of all the suspended power projects now, the country would still have to languish under significant power shortage.
Recently, the government asked
the Power Development Board (PDB) to review the suspended projects and identify the ones that could be implemented immediately.
These eight projects on suppliers' credit were grounded for various irregularities during the tenure of the last caretaker government.
These projects are Barapukuria 250 MW coal-fired power plant,
Khulna 210 MW plant, Sylhet 150 MW Combined Cycle Plant, Tongi 80 MW plant, Siddhirganj 120 MW plant, Bhola 20 MW plant, Bheramara 450 MW plant, and Siddhirganj 210 MW plant.
Of them, the Barapukuria was given the clearance in January last. But the project has already been delayed by more than eight months and it critically depends on the success of the technically difficult coal-mining project. "It is still uncertain if the Barapukuria project can actually come on stream in 2004," said a PDB source.
The Bhola 20 MW project has been totally scrapped for price irregularities. Instead, the PDB has placed a 150 MW project there. But this scheme lacks financial and technical viability and remains uncertain.
The Khulna 210 MW project was suspended as there was only a single bidder. But this project under suppliers' credit is being considered for implementation because of its comparative pricing advantage, sources added.
The fate of the other projects remains totally uncertain.
"The government is now discouraging both private and suppliers' credit power projects and encouraging joint ventures between the PDB and private power companies," said a source.
Some private companies have already shown interest in power schemes and a Singapore-based company has proposed setting up of a 2000 MW plant.
"However, a lot of paper works need to be done for joint venture schemes since we do not have such experience," said a PDB source.
The country's present power demand is estimated at around 3600 MW, which is projected to go up by another 350 MW to 400 MW next year. On the other hand, the PDB is currently supplying around 3200 MW. And so, the early operation of the 450 MW Meghnaghat plant would not bring any great relief as generation capacity of some old power plants would decrease by this time, leaving a shortfall of around
600 MW power.
US power company AES had earlier intended to begin the test operation of the plant in December, provide the PDB free electricity worth US$ 34.74 million as per contract and go into commercial operation in June 2003.
But because of faster work progress, the commercial operation will be advanced to October.
A source close to the AES said instead of giving free electricity to the PDB worth $34 million, the US company is now planning to pay PDB the equivalent amount in cash. This will enable the company to go into commercial operation right from the beginning.
The AES launched its other large-scale power plant scheme in Bangladesh, the 360 MW Haripur Power Plant late last year.
"The plant faced various technical glitches during the last eight months of operation, and the AES believes that it has learned a lot from its Haripur experience," said a company source.
The 360 MW Haripur plant is running at 90 per cent capacity. The plant charges the PDB around Tk 22 crore to Tk 23 crore a month while it pays Tk 6 crore to Tk 8 crore to the board for purchase of gas. In contrast, the PDB pays around Tk 40 crore to purchase power from the three 100 MW barge-mounted plants.
The Meghnaghat plant's early operation would benefit the PDB because of its power price structure. Power from the plant would cost the PDB 2.79 cents or Tk 1.67 per kilowatt hour, a cost nearly half of that of the barge-mounted power plants and less than that of the PDB's own plants.
In addition, the Meghnaghat plant would consume over 100 million cubic feet of per day (mmcfd) of gas at the rate of $2.4 per thousand cubic feet (or an unit). This means that the PDB would be able to adjust a good portion of the AES' power bill just by selling gas.
For PDB plants and the Rural Power Company plant, the bulk gas rate is around only $1.1 per unit, while the PDB heavily subsidises imported fuel for barge-mounted plants. As a result, it pays higher price for power and indirectly subsidises the barge-mounted plants.