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Dhaka Friday,  Mar 29, 2024

550MW Electricity Impor-Test run starts Sept 23, main supply in mid Oct

Bangladesh is going to sign a supplementary power purchase agreement (PPA) with India on importing ‘interim electricity’ from that country, an official said.

As per Indian condition, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will pay the bill to National Vidyut Vyper Nigam Limited (NVVN) of India for purchasing 550MW of electricity through signing a supplementary PPA, concerned official said.

“India has sought interim electricity bill as per guidelines of Central Energy Regulatory Commission (CERC) of India,” Chowdhury Alamgir Hossain, Managing Director, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh told daily sun on Monday. He said NVVN has sought one month electricity bill for supplying 550MW of electricity to the Indo-Bengal grid lines during the test run.

Another official said both the parties primarily agreed that BPDB will pay electricity bills for receiving electricity during the interim period between September 23 and October 10 next.

The parties will sign the deal after the proposal is approved by the BPDB, he said adding, “The power tariff would be as same as the rate set by the Central Energy Regulatory Commission (CERC) of India.”

A power-purchase agreement (PPA) has already been signed to import 250MW of electricity under public sector at an indicative price of 2.40 rupees per unit. But Bangladesh would purchase the electricity as per the notification issued by the CERC of India.

But India is yet to decide wherefrom the electricity will be supplied for Bangladesh. The actual price of imported electricity in public sector would be determined thereafter, sources said.

A private firm, PTC India Limited, will supply electricity to Bangladesh for three years from Indian’s NTPC power plants in West Bengal and Eastern Region at per-unit tariff of Tk 6.34533 or $0.08099 cents.

Bangladesh targets to import 500MW of electricity from India in the first week of October, 2013, official concern said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate power import officially by opening 400KV Bheramara and Baharampur transmission lines and 500MW HVDC back-to-back substation, the official said.

Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam recently sent a demo official (DO) letter to Foreign Affairs Secretary Shahidul Islam to take necessary diplomatic steps to invite Indian Premier Manmohan Singh to join the inaugural function.

If Manmohan agrees, then both the prime ministers will jointly inaugurate the power import and lay foundation stone for 1320MW coal-fired power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat.

Otherwise, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will alone inaugurate the power import, officials said.

The government has already started trial run of the transmission lines between Bheramara of Bangladesh and Baharampur of India from August 25, 2013.

The test commissioning of the transmission of Bangladesh-India transmission line would start from September 23, 2013 and would continue till October 10, officials said.

“Initially, the government would import 250MW of electricity from public sector in the first phase in October and another 250MW from Indian private sector,” officials said.

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