Govt's unsolicited rental projects to spell some relief by April; contractors behind schedule by few weeks, some fail
Sharier Khan
The government's drastic bid to meet power demands during the upcoming irrigation season thorough unsolicited "quick" rental power plants appears successful to a great extent, although some of these deals have flopped.
The Power Development Board (PDB) forecasts a dozen power plants with 1,100 megawatt power generation capacity would come into operation between March and April when the power demand for irrigation surge to an unmanageable height.
Despite these new additions, there still will be around 1,000 MW of load-shedding during March-April. Another 300 MW power would be added to the national grid by July.
Already four such plants started operation and are supplying 350 MW of power to the national grid. Another 70 MW gas-fired unit set up by British company Aggreko started test run from February 21 in Brahmanbaria and is currently running the full capacity test. The plant is likely to go commercial within a couple of days.
Sources in PDB say out of 18 unsolicited rental power deals signed last year to add nearly 1,500 MW power by April, at least 16 would be successful. But most of them would miss their original deadlines. Some deadlines will be missed due to contractors' inefficiency, while some will be missed because of PDB's delay in handover of land or necessary infrastructure to the contractors.
The sources add if the government could award all of these unsolicited contracts to genuine entrepreneurs, the nation could have expected an early relief from load-shedding. Earlier in November, the cabinet purchase committee approved five other power contracts totalling another 487 MW capacity. But none of these unknown local contractors later appeared to sign the contracts.
These defaulting companies are GG Waver (200 MW), Cambridge (90 MW), APR Energy (50 MW), EQ Capital (48 MW) and Wintara (99 MW).
Industry insiders say all of these five deals were pushed by some ruling party parliamentarians. Soon after the purchase committee approved their contracts, these companies went to various business groups to sell out their projects and make easy money, they add.
These flops aside, PDB has been positive about some contractors which have been trying hard to live up to their promises. British company Aggreko, which is the only real "rental" power company among all involved in the business in the country, has so far closely lived up to its promises. It has, however, fallen behind schedule with two gas-based projects in Brahmanbaria and Ashuganj mainly because PDB had some difficulties in handing over land to the company in time.
Summit and its sister concern KPCL have also made significant progress with their projects in Madanganj and Khulna but would still fall behind the schedule by two to five weeks.
The IEL Consortium Associates that is setting up a plant in Meghnaghat and also helping Dutch Bangla Power to build another one in Siddhirganj is also expected to launch their plants close to its deadlines. The IEL made expected progress in its Meghnaghat project. But PDB, which was supposed to avail the power evacuation system for this project on February 20, could not do so till now. The PDB expects to avail this system in mid-March. This delay would affect the IEL launching schedule.
Powerpac Mutiara, Acorn Infrastructure, Northern Power Solution, Sinha Power have made good progress with their projects in Keraniganj, Julda, Katakhali and Amanura, but all of them have fallen two to four weeks behind the schedule.
Two power companies Hyperion and Max Power have not made distinctive progress and it is likely that these companies might end up paying huge penalties to PDB. All the contracts outline a penalty clause under which the defaulter company would pay PDB $500 per megawatt per day for failure to launch on time.
The majority of these power projects will run on furnace oil and some on diesel as the country is facing serious gas supply crisis. Gas-fired power costs half of that produced by furnace oil-fired power. Furnace oil-based power generation is environmentally hazardous, but it costs half of that produced by diesel.
Four of them will operate on natural gas which is now available with PDB as some large power plants have gone under long-term repair work.
"We are now working on the oil supply system to ensure uninterrupted oil supply and storage," said PDB Chairman Alamgir Kabir. He added even if some power contractors fail, the quick rental power schemes would bring a major relief to the country by June this year.
Later this year, some public sector peaking power projects would commence operation. By the end of this year, PDB expects to put almost an end to the long-standing regime of load-shedding.
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