24MW rental power plant comes on stream

A 24-megawatt (MW) rental power plant in Barabkunda in Sitakunda upazila, the first private power generation initiative in Chittagong, started operations yesterday.
A team comprising Bangladesh Power Development Board officials visited the plant on Thursday and cleared the way for sending power to the national grid by giving a 'no objection certificate'.
Regent Power Ltd, a unit of Habib Group, set up the plant at a cost of Tk 130 crore over 2.5 acres of land. Plant construction began in May 2008 alongside the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) substation in Barabkunda area.
Group Managing Director Yasin Ali said the plant will sell all generated power to the PDB and the power will directly go to the national grid through the Barabkunda substation in line with an agreement with the government.
"The capacity of the plant can be increased several times and if the government approves, we would be able to generate more power within the shortest possible time," Ali said.
Regent Power Ltd is one of the nine private firms, which received permission from the government in November 2007 to generate power.
Besides, construction of two other power plants, rental and state-run, is going into operation by next month (June) and April next year respectively.
Of them, the private-firm Energies Power Corporation Ltd is setting up a 73.8 MW capacity furnace oil-fired plant at Shikalbaha on the bank of the river Karnaphuli under Patiya upazila.
According to an agreement with the government, PDB will get 55 MW power from the plant, while the remaining will be rented to private firms.
On the other hand, the government is setting up a 150MW Peaking Power Plant in the same area with a cost of Tk 534 crore.