Eight power plants having 1,283MW capacity okayed

The cabinet committee on public purchase on Sunday approved proposals to award contracts for setting up eight power plants having total capacity of 1,283MW.

This is the first time in the country that a cabinet body in a single sitting approved so many power projects with huge capacity.
The finance minister, AMA Muhith, presided over the cabinet committee meeting that took just about an hour to give nod to the projects.
Of the approved projects, three are medium and large scale base-load independent power producer plants while the remaining five are quick rental power plants.
With the latest approval of the five QRPP projects, the total capacity of such projects rose to 1,873MW after the present Awami League government took office.
The tariffs of the QRPPs are excessively high compared with the tariff of IPP and state-owned power plants.
All the IPP and QRPP units will be set up by private sponsors and the government will purchase electricity from the projects.
The IPP projects, which the private sponsors will implement on build-own-operate basis, are 341MW Bibiyana-2 combined cycle plant, 335MW Meghnaghat-2 (dual-fuel) combined cycle plant and the 216.80MW Bhola combined cycle plant.
Local power giant Summit Group under a joint venture with GE of the USA won the contracts of the Bibiyana-2 and Meghnaghat-2 projects while the Malaysian Ranhill Berhad won the Bhola project.
The state-owned Power Development Board will purchase electricity from the IPP projects for next 22 years.
The levelised tariff of Bibiyana-2 project was fixed at 3.39 US cents (Tk 2.37 equivalent) per kilowatt hour (per unit) while the tariff of Meghnaghat-2 was fixed at 6.8472 US cents (Tk 4.79) per kilowatt hour.
The tariff of Bhola plant was fixed at 3.4301 US cents (Tk 2.40 equivalent).
The sponsors of Bibiyana-2 and Meghnaghat-2 projects will have to set up their plants within next 36 months after signing of the contracts while the sponsor of Bhola project has to set up the plant within 32 months.
The QRPP projects are 50MW plant at Meghnaghat, 90MW plant at Chandpur or Barisal, 99MW plant at Ghorasal, 48MW plant at Ashuganj and another 53MW plant at the same place.
The government has selected the private sponsors for these QRPP projects without any tender process.
Among the selected sponsors, APR Energy will set up 50 MW plant at Meghnaghat (tariff Tk 7.70 per unit), Cambridge Energy will set up 90MW plant at Chandpur or Barisal (tariff Tk 7.65 per unit), Wintara INC will install 99MW plant at Ghorasal (tariff Tk 4.49 per unit), EQ Capital Energy will set up 48MW plant at Ashuganj (tariff Tk 4.50 per unit) and the United Enterprise will set up 53MW plant at Ashuganj (tariff Tk 4.45 per unit).
All these companies will have to set up their respective plant from 90 days to 120 days on the basis of their contracts with the government.
-New Age