The power-rush

Rushing to make up for the country's power deficit, the government is reportedly poised to sign up to 10 contracts by May 31 to eventually deliver up to 1,000MW power--enough to light up half of the populous capital city.
A top official of the Power Development Board, who requested anonymity, said the deals are the first of more than a dozen projects the government hopes to sign within a year to generate in all 5,700MW power. These include two very large coal-fired power plants in Khulna and Chittagong.
Most of these projects would take almost three years to complete--except for the two large coal power plants, which will begin operation in early 2015. But nearly a 1,000MW would be pumped into the national grid within a year, significantly easing the ongoing power crisis.
The contracts will require more than a $5 billion investment.
In three years, the move will well cover the power gap including the anticipated growth in demand.
At a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a 150MW in Chandpur yesterday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government will try to import electricity through regional cooperation with countries throughout Asia.
"The present government has taken effective steps to import electricity on an urgent basis from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China," the UNB quoted her as saying.
"We are aware of your sufferings," she said about frequent power cuts. "Let me assure you this government will not leave any stone unturned to increase power and gas production."
Economist Zaid Bakht predicted that if the government is successful pushing through the contracts, it could revive the smaller scale industries now hard hit by the power crisis.
"But for large industries, increasing natural gas supplies is very important," said Bakht. "Due to gas crisis, large investments have stalled. And we do not know what the government is doing to increase gas production. Gas is important for power generation as well."
Bakht also said financing of the contracts would depend on economics of each project and how transparent the government was in soliciting and awarding bids. "I feel that the government is not sharing enough information and people are not aware about what's going on," he said.
PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir agreed that financing would be a challenge.
"But we must try," he said. "In order to come out from the crisis, we will have to make all out efforts. If we can secure deals with good power companies, financing would not be a problem. After all, the government has got a good financing track record with power companies."
The Awami League government, in power for 14 months, has promised ambitious plans to add 9,000MW power by the end of its term. Until now, however, it has signed only a few deals totalling around 600MW.
With hourly load shedding affecting homes, offices and industries, the government is facing mounting criticism for poor implementation of its plans.
The Power Cell, Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) and North West Power Generation Company (NWPGC) have all failed to complete a single tender in the last one year. It is often alleged that these small agencies easily get influenced by business lobbies, resulting in slowing down of the awarding of tenders.
"If they acted competently, we would have gained 1,000MW power from 2012," said a power ministry official.
The EGCB's poor handling of a 300MW power deal with World Bank financing is now going for a re-tender.
With a very poor track record of project implementation, the Power Cell is now set to publish the "request for proposal" document for its Bibiyana 450MW power project within two weeks. Two other tenders totalling 300MW capacity in Sirajganj and Khulna are also expected to make some major progress in May, officials claimed.
A consultant of Indian National Thermal Power Company is now carrying out a feasibility study to set up two largest projects: 1,350MW coal-fired power plants in Khulna and Chittagong. The Khulna plant will be publicly financed while the Chittagong would be under private investment.
"We have started acquiring land in Khulna and Chittagong in this connection," said the PDB official. "We hope by the end of this year, we will be able to sign agreements for these plants."
The government has also floated a tender to set up a 40km transmission line and a high voltage substation near the southwestern border of the country to import power from India.
At the ceremony yesterday Hasina said the technical experts team from both the countries are working hectically to make this happen.
"We hope we will be able to import 500MW electricity from India by 2012," she said.
PDB sources, however, said Bangladesh will more likely pull 250MW from this line.
If Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's upcoming visit to Russia can secure a nuclear power deal, the country will have another 2,000MW nuclear power project in the pipeline. It takes about six years to implement a nuclear power project. However, this move is still uncertain.