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Power Plant Projects

Lobbying may let 2 rental companies off the hook

Sharier Khan
The power ministry is considering extension of project deadlines for two unqualified local rental power companies instead of penalising and cancelling contracts with them for failing to commercially launch five rental power plants with a total capacity of 200 MW even three months behind schedule
The two companies -- Energy Prima of Hosaf Group and Kaltimax-GBB- were selected despite their lack of experience. After signing contracts with Power Development Board (PDB) on January 16 and January 24 this year, they were supposed to commercially launch the five plants back in mid May.
But till date the companies failed to launch any power plant commercially. Their failure forced the PDB to serve them with notice of default and intent to terminate the contracts. But at the same time, the power ministry verbally assured the companies that 'nothingwill happen', sources said.
They pointed out that failure of the two companies should be penalized with a daily fine of S 500 per MW from May 15. “This means till date the companies should pay the government about eight million dollars of liquidated damage," said an official.
The power plant deals will be automatically cancelled if the companies fail to launch at least test operation within a three-
month bank guarantee period against each of the rental power contract. “Some of the bank guarantees will expire this month, some next month," said the official.
The submission dates of bank guarantees by Energy Prima and GBB had stretched between January, February and April though they should have been submitted within a few days of signing of the deals.
“This demonstrates that from the beginning of the tender, the power ministry had been very relaxed with Energy Prima that bagged four of the five deals,” said one a source.
Energy Prima bagged three 50 MW rental power deals in FROM PAGE 1
Kumargaon, Shahjibazar and Fenchuganj and one 20 MW deal in Bogra. Kumargaon, Shahjibazar and Fenchuganj deals were signed on January 16, and Bogra deal on January 24. But the company submitted $2.8 million bank guarantee against Kumargaon project on January 30, $ 3 million against Shahjibazar project on February 5, $3 million against Fenchuganj project on April 15 and $0.9 million for BograprojectonFebruary 13.
Energy Prima chief Moazzem Hossain is being backed by a strong lobby in the government. His brother is a former BNP lawmaker from Feni. And Moazzem is one of the accused in the Barapukuria scam case filed by the AntiCorruption Commission.
Moazzem has allegedly siphoned off huge money from various supplier's credit projects with China in which he worked as a local agent for two decades.
The GBB's 33 MW Bhola power project deal was signed on January 16, and this company also submitted its bank guarantee after a long delay.
Till date, Energy Prima could only launch one power plant in Kumargaon on test basis. The plant is supposed to generate 50 MW
power for 100 hours steadily to pass a dependable capacity test by the PDB. A successful test run will give it a commercially operable status.
The test operation of Kumargaon plant began in early July. But till now the plant never succeeded in the test as it could achieve a maximum generation of 48.5 MW for 72 hours. The PDB's committee on Dependable Capacity Test visited the plant twice and found it could not deliver the promised power.
Energy Prima's three other projects in Shajibazar .Bogra and Fenchuganj are far from completion, sources said. "Some equipment has been mobilised at Shajibazar plant site but things do not look bright," said an official.
At a meeting with the power ministry on Monday, Energy Prima and Hosaf Group chief claimed that both Shajibazar and Bogra plants can be launched on test later this month.
GBB-Kaltimax representative at the same meeting said their 33 MW power plant in Bhola may be commercially commissioned in October.
Instead of reprimanding these companies for wasting time, a high official of the power ministry suggested the companies to apply to
the PDB for extending the deadline for completion of the project.
“But contractually there is no room for any extension,” noted one source.
“In fact, if the government is so lenient about extending project implementation period to 240 days from 120 days, it could have easily bagged much better deals from competent companies. Price of rental power is higher than conventional power because it is delivered within a very short time. Extending this delivery time contradicts the justification of costly power,” he added.
Power purchase from these plants will be costly but the power ministry had convinced the caretaker government's cabinet to approve these projects on the plea that these would surely come into operation within 120 days of signing of contracts as the penalty for failure of the contractor is very high.
The government signed seven rental power plant contracts with four companies in January and one in April. Of the seven, only one 40 MW plant in Khulna installed by British company Aggreko came into operation from the first week of June. The plant was supposed to come into operation on May 28.