Page 9 - AsiaElec Week 20

AsiaElec COAL-FIRED GENERATION AsiaElec
Bangladesh opens coal-fired Payra power plant
INDIA
BANGLADESH has opened the first unit of the Chinese-built and financed 1,320MW, coal-fired Payra Thermal Power Plant, connecting 660M to the national grid.
Tests had been taking place at the site since January, where the adjacent 660MW Unit 2 is also being built by The Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL), a joint venture of Bangladesh’s state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC).
Payra is now the largest thermal power plant is the country, and will use import coal in a bid to meet the country’s rapidly rising demand for electricity.
Payra boasts the same design as the existing 525MW Barapukuria plant in Dinajpur.
The first 660MW unit started operating on a trial basis on January 13.
The second unit is likely to take more time to start operating due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Company officials has wanted to open the second unit in May as well, but now this is likely to be postponed until June at the earliest. January that the plant was likely to start
supplying to the national network this month. Located in Dhankhali of Patuakhali regoin, the power plant now supplies electricity to the national grid through a 163km, double-circuit high-voltage transmission line connecting the plant to the newly built 400/230kV grid substa-
tion in Muksudpur.
BCPCL has been building the power plant via
a $2bn funding deal with China. The two BCPCL partners singed a deal in March 2015 to build the Payra plant.
However, the reliance on imported coal, as well as Chinese financing and technical know- how, means the Dhaka could be exposing itself to a carbon bomb. Local critics use this term as the government has plans to build 30 coal-fired power plants by 2031.
The country could face a coal import bill of up to $2bn per year, while the 30 power plants could produce 115mn tonnes per year of CO2.
Bangladesh’s installed power capacity is more than 20,000MW and the country aims to provide electricity to all of its more than 160 million peo- ple by 2030. Domestic gas currently accounts for 85% if generation fuel, leading to the desire to diversify into coal.™
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