Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Ltd (BIFPCL) -- a 50:50 joint venture between Indian power generation major NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) –- may invite bids for turnkey construction of 2 X 660 super-critical coal-fired thermal power plant at Rampal, near Mangala river port in June.

Conceived in 2010, the estimated ₹6,500-7,000 crore, “Maitree Super Thermal Power Project” will be the largest in Bangladesh. More importantly, it will improve the share of cheaper coal-fired electricity from less than 2 per cent (210 MW) to nearly 12 per cent (1530 MW) of total installed capacity. According to sources, a pre-bid meeting held earlier this month was attended by six power gear majors including BHEL and L&T from India; Doosan and Hyundai from South Korea and two Chinese companies.

Apart from construction of the plant, the turnkey contractor would also be responsible for building a coal terminal at Mangala for importing a little over 4.5 million tonnes of fuel annually.

NTPC sources confirm that the JV has already completed site development work and the bids are scheduled to be opened in July with targeted commissioning in three years from the award of contract. BPDB currently has a generation capacity of 10530 MW. However, the peak supply as on May 24 was approximately half at 5457 MW, approximately 1530 MW short of the peak demand 6987 MW.

Nearly 10 per cent of the total availability (500 MW) in Bangladesh is met through import of cheap coal-fired power from India. This includes 250 MW at domestic regulated tariff and rest open market purchase.

An additional 100 MW will be supplied by the cheapest Indian gas based power producer, ONGC Tripura Power Company, soon. The NTPC JV is going to further integrate the energy ties between the two nations. Though described as an equal JV, India is expected to play a lead role in financing the NTPC operated project.

From gas to coal

Though Bangladesh is also setting up another 940 MW of gas-based facilities (in three locations), the NTPC JV will surely help Dhaka in reducing its dependence on gas-based electricity (67 per cent of installed capacity) and imported oil (25 per cent).

A thumb rule comparison suggests that coal priced at $100 a tonne generates energy equivalent to gas priced at $3.5 per million metric British Thermal unit (mmBtu).

While imported thermal coal (4200 GAR) is available at $38 at Indian ports; well-head gas prices in any part of the world (except in Kuwait) is far higher than $3.5 mmBtu. It means Bangladesh is currently heavily subsidising its energy costs, at the cost of national exchequer.

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