Govt set to buy 100 MW power from pvt joint venture company

The government is set to buy 100MW of electricity everyday from a solar power plant spending a total of Tk 3600 crore for a period of 20 years.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase the solar power from a joint venture of company of Bangladesh -China.
The power division has already placed a proposal before the cabinet committee on public purchase to allow them purchase electricity from the joint venture under the Special Power and Energy Enhancement Act.
"The BPDB will pay Tk 11.20 for per unit (kilowatt hours) of electricity with consideration of 18.50 per cent plant factor under 'no electricity no payment' basis," a senior official of BPDB told the Daily Observer on Sunday.
The project is so far the largest solar-based power generation initiative in the private sector. The power plant would be installed on 350 acres of land, according to the project proposal.
The project is planned to be implemented between January 2018 and December 2019.
The government is now working on four large solar-based private power projects which are expected to be set up with a combined capacity of 272MW power. However, it plans to install big solar power plants with 1,740MW generation capacity by 2021.
It has opened solar-based electricity generation for the private sector firms from which the PDB would buy the output approximately at Tk 10-14 a kilowatt-hour or unit of electricity, according to the proposals submitted so far.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs recently gave approval to a proposal of a Singapore-based company to install a 200MW solar plant at Teknaf of Cox's Bazar.
In a bid to promote renewable energy, the government has also assured the private entrepreneurs that the public sector utilities would buy solar electricity even if the utilities had cheaper options to meet the demand for power at any time. The government has also assured that it would also assist the private entrepreneurs to obtain bank loans at a lower rate than the rate set by Bangladesh Bank.
The joint venture firm will install the plant under the Independent Power Producer (IPP) mode. The joint venture company will install a 14-kilometre transmission line, sub-station and also purchase land to implement the power project, the proposal said.          
The power division said, as per the proposal, the electricity demand growth has been estimated at 10-12 percent per year.  According to power system master plan, the government would require 24,000MW of electricity by 2021. Of the volume of the electricity requirement, the government has targeted to generate at least 10 percent or 2,400MW of electricity from renewable sources.
The cabinet committee on public purchase has already allowed seven solar based power plants having capacity to generate 527MW of electricity.
200MW Solar Park at Teknaf, Cox's Bazar of Sun Edition Energy got approval on October 1, 2015, while 50MW Solar Park at Gaoripur, Mymensingh by Hetat-Ditrolic on December 2, 2015,   32MW Grid Tide at Dharmapasa in Sunamganj by Edison-Power on December 2, 2015 for power at Tk 13.60 a unit. 30MW Solar Park, Gangachara, Rangpur by Intraco on March 16, 2016 at Tk 12.80 a unit, 20MW Solar Park at Teknaf by Joules Power at Tk 11.12 per unit, 200MW Solar at Sundarganj, Gaibandha by the Beximco Power at Tk 12.00 a unit, 50MW Solar Peak at Gowainghat of Sylhet at Tk 11.12 per unit.