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The 1,244 MW Payra power plant is all set to resume generation by Saturday midnight after a hiatus of 20 days as imported coal has already reached the plant site.
Initially, one unit with a generation capacity of around 622 MW will be operational, a senior official of the Bangladesh-China Power Company Ltd (BCPCL) told the FE earlier on the day.
The second unit of similar capacity of the country’s largest coal-fired power plant will resume operation next week, he added.
With the resumption of power generation, the country’s electricity supply situation is expected to improve to some extent.
A vessel carrying around 41,200 tonnes of imported coal from Indonesia berthed at the plant jetty Thursday night and started unloading coal on the following night.
The plant could resume power generation as the government paid around US$100 million early this month to facilitate coal import.
The BCPCL would be able to open letters of credit (LCs) to import some 17 cargoes with this fund, said sources.
The power plant went out of operation in the afternoon of June 05 due to the coal crisis caused by the US dollar crunch, intensifying the countrywide power outages. The plant requires around 12,000 tonnes of coal daily to generate electricity.
The BCPCL, the owner of the Payra power plant, could not import sufficient quantities of coal to continue its operation due to a dearth of US dollar, said its managing director AM Khurshedul Alam.
A coal-purchase bill of around US$294 million remained unpaid until then, he added.
The entire power plant will have to shut operation for around 20 days as a consequence. The first unit of the BCPCL was shut on May 25 and the second unit on June 5.