Bangladesh is likely to step into its maiden journey of power production from imported coal by the end of this year with the first large-scale consignment of coal coming into the country most likely by Aug 30.
The coal is being imported from Indonesia for the thermal power plant near the southern port of Payra by the executing agency Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL).
The 1320-megawatt (MW) power plant is likely to start production in December this year and BPCL will stock up on coal before that.
Although the Barapukuria Power Plant runs on coal, it does so from the Barapukuria coal mine and the thermal power plant at Payra is the first one to be run on imported coal.
“The first ship carrying coal will anchor at Payra on Aug 30 which will be used to run the plant,” said BPCL Managing Director Khorshedul Alam.
According to BPCL sources although scheduled to operate on full swing from December, test runs will be carried out at the plant with constructions almost coming to an end.
BCPCL signed a 10-year agreement for coal import with Indonesian PT Bayan Resources on Jun 17 of this year.
BCPCL is a joint venture between Bangladesh's North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL) and China's China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC).
A top employee of the Power Division said that the government plans to produce 60,000 MW of electricity by 2041 which requires massive amount of coal.
He said that Bangladesh was focusing on importing coal from Indonesia and trying to strengthening ties with the country due to the low import costs.
Meanwhile, sources at Payra Thermal Plant said that initially big cargo ships will not be used to bring in coal due to the plant’s limited capacity.
Initially 60,000 tonne ships half filled with coal will be brought in but within a year big ships will be docked at Andaman and the coal will be brought in small ships.