By 2027, 13 power plants that are being constructed now will raise the country's power generation capacity by 10,754MW, said the report submitted yesterday to the parliamentary standing committee on power, energy and mineral resources. The existing plants have a total capacity of 23,871MW electricity and they produced the highest 15,648MW on April 19. However, the country saw power outages that day because there was demand for more.

The second unit of Rampal power plant, second unit of Banshkhali power plant, first unit of Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Power Plant, Sreepur 150MW power plant, Summit Meghnaghat Power Plant-2, Unique Meghnaghat Power Plant, and Reliance Bangladesh LNG and Power Limited will begin commercial operation by this year, says the report. Construction of the power plant in Sreepur has made 74.43 percent progress while the rest are almost complete.

One unit of Chattogram's 1,224MW Banshkhali power plant owned by SS Power Limited, a subsidiary of S Alam group, started commercial operation on September 18. Bangladesh Power Development Board is likely to ask the plant authorities to begin operating the second unit by the last week of October. Rampal will add its 660MW by next month, and Matarbari 600MW by December. Among the 13 new plants, six are coal-based, two are liquid fuel based, and five are natural gas-based, says the ministry report. Of the power generation capacity of Bangladesh, only 1,194MW is coming from renewable sources.

News Link: Power generation capacity to rise 4,817MW this year