Poor response to PDB bidding

The Power Development Board (PDB) tender for 10 power plants of 820 megawatt capacity yesterday received only 28 bids.

This has surprised officials as bidders had purchased 122 tender documents till Wednesday in a clear mark of their enthusiasm. But this enthusiasm was not reflected in yesterday's tender closing.

There was only one bid each by one single company for two plant sites. Due to this lack of competition, these two power projects are likely to go for re-tender.

A number of Chinese companies dominated in the bid, in which South Korean, Egyptian and a Bangladeshi company also competed.

Japanese company Sumitomo yesterday came to the PDB office with four proposals. But its representatives dropped just one bid and later formally withdrew it without explaining why.

Representatives of some bidders attributed the lack of participation to some bid criteria and financial terms, which they said was hard or discouraging for investors.

To participate in this tender, bidders have submitted $1 million bid bond for the 200 MW power plant, $300,000 for 100 MW plant, $240,000 for a 70 MW plant and $150,000 for a 50 MW plant.

The payment term is hard and does not give investors confidence about timely payment of investment, comments an executive of a power company.

In addition, some investors are not fully confident about the government's payment capacity against such huge number of power projects taken up in one go.

All except one of these power projects will have dual-fuel system. They would have the system to run on natural gas or heavy fuel oil or diesel.

The lone gas-fired power plant will be set up in Ghorashal with 200 MW capacity. In this project, only two power companies submitted their bids -- South African Entrerrios and Chinese North East Electric Power.

In the Gopalganj 100 MW dual-fuel plant, three companies submitted bids -- Entrerrios, Korean Hyundai and local Energypac. PDB sources say the readout price offer of Hyundai was found lowest in this bid.

There was only one bid by a single company China National Electric Ware & Cable Corp for Baghabari 50 MW and Daudkandi 50 MW projects. These tenders are likely to go for re-tender due to lack of competition.

In Katakhali (Rajshahi) 50 MW bid, Energypac, China National Electric Ware & Cable Corporation, Chinese Dong Feng and Korean Daewoo submitted bids. The readout price offer of Energypac was found as the lowest.

Egyptian Elsewedy, Hyundai, Dong Feng, Daewoo and Energypac filed bids for in Shantahar 50 MW project where Energypac's offer was primarily found to be the lowest.

In Faridpur 50 MW, the bidders are Hyundai, Dong Feng, Energypac and Daewoo and the lowest readout price offer was made by Energypac.

Hyundai, Energypac and Sumec Group of China filed bids for Bera (Pabna) 70 MW project and the offer of Sumec came out to be the lowest.

In Hathazari 100 MW project, Enterrious, Guang Dong Power of China and Elsewedy submitted bids. In Dohazari 100 MW, the participants are Entrerrious and Guang Dong Power.

The PDB aims at completing the tender evaluation process within 45 days from today.

However, PDB is already running behind schedule with the evaluation of eight rental power projects in which 63 offers were dropped.

The PDB had targeted to complete the evaluation within three days or the first week of November. Sources say the evaluation would not be completed now before next week.

The PDB floated the tender for the 10 public sector projects in mid-September.