Loadshed free Ramadan may remain illusive as the government itself finds was not confident to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity in next the one month.
‘We are not hundred per cent sure about ensuring uninterrupted power supply during Ramadan due to some deficiencies in power generation, transmission and distribution,’ state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid said on Monday.
‘It would take two to three years more to achieve the capability for uninterrupted power supply,’ he said at a contract signing ceremony where the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board appointed two Chinese firms to repower an aged power unit at Ghorashal.
He, however, said that the power supply situation would be better than that of previous year.
The junior minister also said that the government was trying to manage deficiencies in power generation by staggering gas supply among power stations, fertiliser factories and CNG filling stations.
He said that repowering of the old power plants would enable utilities to generate electricity using lesser volume of natural gas.
Under the contract, China Energy Engineering Group and Guangdong Power Engineering Co Ltd, China would convert the simple cycle version of Ghorashal unit- 4 with an increased power generation capacity to 409MW from existing 170MW in 22 months.
Officials said that the existing power generation at unit- 4 will not be interrupted while repowering it.
PDB will pay the Chinese firms $198.53 million (equivalent to Tk 1,544.58 crore) for their job while the total project cost was estimated at over $260 million or Tk 2,029.24 crore.
The World Bank will fund the project with $217 million in loan at 0.75 per cent interest with a provision to realise in 36 years with a six-year grace period.
While addressing the contract signing ceremony, power division secretary Monwar Islam said that the generation utilities had been blamed for operating inefficient power plants which caused wastage of fuels, particularly the natural gas.
PDB would be relieved from the blame by engaging Chinese contractors to improve the efficiency of the power unit.
It would require a supply of 56 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to run the power unit with 409MW capacity after repowering while it requires a supply of 48 mmcfd gas now to run at 170MW capacity, said PDB chairman Md Shamsul Hasan Mia.
Nasrul Hamid in his speech asked PDB to improve its capacity and efficiency in operating the power plants.