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Arranging sufficient gas for running half a dozen new power plants with a total generation capacity of around 3,510 megawatts appears uncertain while some others shut for this fuel crisis, sources say.
And such uncertainties stalk over the energy sector at a time when high-electricity-demand dry summer season approaches, experts note and regret domestic gas-exploration delays.
To rub salt into the wound is government's power-purchase deals with the private power-plant entrepreneurs from home and abroad that provides for capacity payment.
Three of such power plants, owned by private sector, have already completed construction and are on test run or being readied for operation on a test basis, while another, owned by public sector, will be readied for electricity generation by end of 2024, market-insiders said.
The government runs the risk of providing billions of taka as capacity payments to the plant owners in failure of purchasing electricity from these power plants after their commissioning, they added.
State-run Petrobangla has 'commitment' to supply natural gas to all the power plants, Khondokar Mokammel Hossian, member, company affairs, of the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) said.
These plants will require around 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas combined to generate electricity to full capacity, he added.
The plants that have completed construction are Unique Meghnaghat 584MW power plant, Summit Meghnaghat-II 583MW and 718MW power plant owned jointly by India's Reliance Power and Japan's JERA having the combined electricity-generation capacity of 1,885 MWs.
These three completed power plants will require around 325 mmcfd of natural gas to generate electricity in full swing, said the BPDB official
The power board, being the electricity buyer, has power-purchase agreements (PPAs) with these power plants, while Petrobangla has assured supply of gas, Mr Hossain points out.
Three more power plants, owned by public sector, which are nearing completion, include 800MW Rupsha combined-cycle plant, 416MW Ghorashal repowering unit-3 plant and 409MW Ghorashal repowering unit-4 plant.
These three gas-fired power plants owned by state-owned power entities will require around 275mmcfd gas in total.
All these gas-fired power plants are being readied for operation at a time when some three dozen small-to medium-sized gas-fired power plants with a combined generation capacity of around 2,873 MWs are shut only for gas crisis, according to official data available with BPDB as on March 12, 2024.
Gas power plants are now getting around 893mmcfd gas against their aggregate demand for around 2,316mmcfd, according to official data.
According to the official data, Petrobangla is providing gas to Summit Meghnaghat-II 583MW power plant and Unique Meghnaghat 584MW plant to carry out test runs.
"We have completed test run and now waiting for commercial operation date (COD)," says Muhammed Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Group that owns the Summit Meghnaghat-II 583MW plant.
He hopes the COD will be obtained soon.
"Unique Meghnaghat power plant also completed test run," said Anupam Hayat, chief financial officer, or CFO, of Unique Meghnaghat power plant.
He is confident that the plant will get necessary gas as he said the plant is an efficient one.
Smitesh I. Vaidya, head of contracts & commercials of the 718MW power plant owned by Reliance and JERA, says the relevant infrastructure viz temporary gas pipeline for supply of gas has been recently completed.
"The project will now commence the testing and commissioning and we target to achieve commercial operations very shortly," he adds.
"We note that the ministry, the BPDB and Petrobangla are taking positive efforts to ensure the most efficient power plants like ours will be given priority in gas supply to better utilize the LNG being procured by the country," Smitesh says.
"Operating new and efficient power plants like ours will ensure that the country gets stable base-load power and cost-efficient electricity supply," he adds.
Construction of Ghorashal repowering stations Unit-3 and Unit-4 will be completed within September 2024, chief engineer of state-run Ghorashal power plant Mohammad Zohurul Islam has said.
He was also in doubt about having gas sufficiently on completion of construction of the plants.
Islam, however, opines for time-to-time supply of natural gas to all the new gas-fired power plants through rationing so that the plants remain operative and can generate electricity in full swing when gas will be available from 2026.
Almost 80 per cent of works of Rupsha power plant, owned by state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NGPGCL), has been completed and the first unit of the 800MW plant is scheduled to start operation in September, a senior NWPGCL official told the FE writer.
Asked whether Petrobangla will be able to provide necessary gas to these new power plants as per commitment, Mr Khan said Petrobangla agreed to supply gas to these power plants upon availability.
"We make allocations of gas for different gas-guzzling consumers on the basis of gas availability," he said.
Until mid-March, Petrobangla has allocations of providing up to 900mmcfd gas to power plants, which he said can soar as high as to 1,200mmcfd next summer, Khan said.
"The power-plant owners inked deals and constructed the power plants knowing all the conditions of Bangladesh," says Mohammad Hossain, director-general of state-run Power Cell.