PDB goes for rental deal with Aggreko
150MW gas-fired plants
The Power Development Board (PDB) has initiated a contract with British company Aggreko for two gas-fired rental power plants totalling 150 megawatt capacity as a fail-safe measure to ensure maximum power generation in next irrigation period in February.
This is the second contract that PDB has initiated with a company for a gas-fired rental power project. The first deal was initiated last month with local Max Power along with the US company GE for a 78 MW plant, says a top PDB official.
Aggreko had previously installed a 200 MW rental power unit under a contract ahead of time, a feat no other rental power companies could demonstrate so far. This prompted PDB to ask the British company for further involvement.
Aggreko will set up an 80 MW plant in Brahmanbaria and a 70 MW one in Ashuganj, while Max Power would install the 78 MW plant in Ashuganj.
The power ministry tables the proposal before the cabinet purchase committee today to award a contract to Aggreko for the two units. The purchase committee last month approved the deal with Max Power.
Max Power will sign the final contract on October 14.
Both these deals have been penned on the basis of unsolicited negotiations. Both of them will have to begin commercial power generation within 120 days of signing the contract. Again, Aggreko will have to bring its first 70 MW power generation within 75 days.
The unit cost of power for both Aggreko and Max Power's projects will be Tk 4.8 per kilowatt hour. These companies will sell power to PDB for three years and then uninstall their plants.
This is the cheapest cost as far as any rental power deal in the country goes. This is the cheapest because of the use of gas as the primary fuel. The PDB signed several rental power deals that will use heavy fuel oil and diesel. The fuel oil-based plants will charge Tk 7.8 per unit of electricity and the diesel plants Tk 14.4 per unit.
But pursuing gas-based rental power projects is unusual considering that gas crisis has already affected power generation by a large proportion.
While gas supply shortfalls have affected power generation in many plants in different areas, the areas of Ashuganj and Ghorashal were least affected by the gas crunch, explains the PDB official.
Ashuganj and Ghorashal stand as the biggest area for gas-based power generation and fertiliser production as these areas are close to the Titas gas field and work as a hub for gas transmission.
"There are some large units in both Ashuganj and Ghorashal that will go under maintenance programme one after another. One of the 210 MW units has gone under repair that will take another eight months to complete," he informs.
"But we have gas allocation for all of these plants.
"We have calculated that one unit or another would go for maintenance in the next three years, leaving us some gas that we can utilise for power generation. That is why we have taken the initiative for gas-based rental power," he explains.
Max Power and Aggreko would need around 55 million cubic feet gas per day to generate 228 MW power. There would still be enough "allocated" gas for another 100 MW plant, the PDB official informs.
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