http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=124974
Master plan on ‘coal power dev’ on cards
BSS, DHAKA
The power and energy ministry has taken a move to formulate a master plan on ‘coal power development’ in the country to accelerate the process of installing coal-based power plants to mitigate the nagging power situation.
To produce 1,000 MW of electricity from the coal-based power plants in the next couple of years, the government is set to start the work of feasibility study with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The ministry has also identified 13 areas across the country to install the proposed coal based power plants. These are Khulna, Bheramara, Meghnaghat, Mawa Upstream, Mawa Downstream, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Mongla, Chandpur, Phulbari, Khalaspir, Dighipara and a third unit at Barapukuria coal mine areas.
“We primarily identified 13 places to set up coal based power plants. But our main objective is now to install four plants at Khulna, Mongla, Meghnaghat and Chittagong as we have infrastructure facilities here and we could install the plants at minimum time frame,” Alamgir Kabir, acting Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB), told the news agency today.
Although the power division has three master plans formulated in 1985, 1995 and 2005 the ministry felt those are not sufficient to focus on the present scenario, as the plans said the primary fuel of the proposed power plants would be gas.
“Petrobangla, the state-run oil and gas company, made it clear that it would be not able to supply gas to the future power projects from its existing reserve and some of our ongoing projects are being suffering due to gas supply shortage every day,” Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, told the agency.
“Under the circumstances,” he said, “it would not be wise to go for more gas based power plants. We need to go for energy mix.”
Sources at the energy ministry said the government is yet to take any decision on coal policy. So it needs to explore all options including importing coal from abroad to run the power plants.
According to the Power Cell, the country would need 9,000 MW of electricity by 2014 and if it could successfully complete the installation work of the proposed coal based power plants, then the gap between the generation and supply would stand at 1,500 MW per day.
The PDB can now produce 3,800 MW to 4,000 MW.
In the present gas scenario, the Power Cell assumes that 4,000-MW-capacity new power plants ought to be developed using domestic coal.
According to the National Energy Policy 2004, country’s total coal reserve is 2,527 million tonnes in four fields – 492 million tonnes recoverable from the reserves.
This recoverable coal reserve is equivalent to 14 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.
Among the fields, Barapukuria holds in its womb 300 million tonnes, Phulbari 400 million tonnes, Jamalganj has a cache of 1,000 million tons and 450-million-tonne coal is in deposit in Khalaspir area.
Professor M. Tamim, former special assistant to the chief adviser of the caretaker government and a teacher of BUET, said the fuel crisis is the main obstacle to mitigating power crisis. “We should be go for setting up on dual-fuel system of using coal and gas for the sake of better energy security.”
