British firm to generate 200MW power by July
The Power Development Board (PDB) yesterday initialled an unsolicited rental power contract with a British company to generate 200 megawatts of power.
According to the deal, 100MW of power would be generated within June 22 and the full-capacity production would be reached within July 28, sources said.
British company Aggreko, one of the world leaders in rental power, will install its diesel-fired power generation equipment in Ghorashal and Khulna or any other site designated by the government.
Meanwhile, the cabinet committee on economic affairs headed by the finance minister yesterday approved a proposal giving waiver from the Public Procurement Regulation (PPR) and Public Procurement Act (PPA) to procure urgent rental power of 1,000MW to 1,500MW without any tender.
Both PPR and PPA bar public procurement without open tenders.
The deal with Aggreko was achieved following the country's fastest ever negotiation spearheaded by a high-powered committee led by Power Secretary AK Azad. Other members of the committee includes representatives of PDB, the National Board of Revenue, law ministry, power ministry and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The high-powered committee has also been negotiating for urgent rental power installation with Alsthom of USA, Apac of Australia and a Turkish company. The committee has invited a few more rental power companies including GE of USA, which are yet to hold any negotiation.
Yesterday's deal was initialled within 12 days of the prime minister's nod to urgently install 600MW to 1,200MW rental power on unsolicited negotiation basis with experienced companies. The PM made the decision hoping that the unsolicited deals with experienced bidders would minimise the ongoing load shedding from July-August.
The final contract with Aggreko will be signed after the cabinet's purchase committee gives it a green signal. Sources said the power ministry would seek the committee's approval next week to ensure the fastest ever implementation of a power contract in the country.
Aggreko has been producing 40MW of rental power in Khulna since 2008 under a three-year contract. The cost per kilowatt-hour from the Khulna plant is Tk 21.52 -- the highest tariff of the country.
Without giving any figure a competent PDB source, however, said the power tariff under the current deal would be much lower than that of the Khulna deal with Aggreko.
Sources said the deal with Aggreko could be secured quickly because the company had its equipment ready for mobilisation. So far the other rental power companies could not assure immediate mobilisation of their plant equipment.
“The negotiations with the rental companies mainly focussed on whether they have power generation equipment ready to be mobilised in different places of the country,” said an official.
PDB secretary Azizul Islam and Managing Director of Aggreko (Asia) Devajit Das signed yesterday's deal at the power division. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, PM's Energy Adviser Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister for power Enamul Haque, Power Secretary AK Azad, PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir and others were present on the occasion.
After the signing, the finance minister said though the power tariff of this deal was very high, the government would welcome the deal if the company could install the plant within the time frame.
He said for the last 16 months, the government has been trying to ease the country's power crisis. But due to different problems, including lack of gas supply, the government finally opted for diesel and furnace oil-based power plants which would be costlier than coal and gas-based plants.
The finance minister noted that the country would ultimately have to rely on large-scale coal exploration for power generation and tap regional power grid sharing.
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