Japanese Firms in Bangladesh Power Project

A consortium comprising two Japanese companies and one Bangladeshi company is to build a 590-MW combined-cycle power plant that will most likely run on re-gasified LNG.

Bangladesh's cabinet committee for public procurement, chaired by the new finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal approved January 23 the decision to award the power plant project to be implemented at Anwara near the port city Chattogram (formerly Chittagong).

The Bangladeshi sponsor of the project is United Enterprise & Co while the Japanese companies are Kyushu Electric and Sojitz Corporation.

State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the power plant for over 22 years at $0.36867/kWh, which is equivalent to Tk 2.9493/kWh when running on locally produced natural gas.

But the tariff would be $0.68043/kWh if it is run on imported re-gasified LNG, which is the likelier case given domestic gas shortages.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) between the BPDB and the consortium and a gas sales agreements (GSA) between state-run Petrobangla and the consortium will be signed soon. Apart from this power plant a number of LNG-fired power plants are in the pipeline where GE of the USA and Siemens of Germany are keen to invest.

State minister for the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources (MPEMR) Nasrul Hamid said the government would prefer gas-fired power plants as those are environment friendly and quick to build, he said.

Bangladesh's overall electricity generation capacity is around 17.685 GW and the government aims to increase the country's overall electricity generation to 24 GW by 2024; to 40 GW by 2030; and 60 GW by 2041.