Aug 8, 2023
| Staff Correspondent | The New Age
The state-owned REB that had been purchasing power from the plants since 2006 sent the proposals for the new power purchase to the cabinet committee in the past week although the previous agreements expired earlier, said officials concerned. They said that the agreement on 35MW power plant at Ashulia in Dhaka expired in 2022 while the agreements on 26MW power plant at Madhabdi in Narshingdi and 14MW plant at Chandina in Comilla expired in 2021. The meeting is likely to be be presided over by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
Officials referring the REB proposals said that the overall tariff was estimated at Tk 2.95 per kilowatt-hour. The REB also estimated that more than Tk 1,100 crore would be required as per the proposed power purchase agreements for a period of five years. The REB that has been supplying electricity mainly in the rural areas since 1978 purchases power from private power producers and the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board. It received 57 per cent of 14,346MW power generated in the country on August 2, according to its report on demand and supply situation issued on August 3.
The report said that it supplied 8,246MW power against the demand of 8,542MW causing a shortfall of 296MW on August 2. The officials said that the committee was likely to review a proposal from the Petrobangla to import pone cargo liquefied natural gas from spot market. Total Energies Gas and Power Limited has been selected by the Petrobangla for importing the consignment having 33.60 lakh MMBtu LNG in September. Each MMBtu will cost more than $11. Earlier, the Petrobangla sought approval from the same committee to import 17 cargos of LNG amid high demand for the item for power generation and other industries. The country had to suspend import of LNG for about six months in 2022 due to price hike of the item. It resumed LNG import in February 2023 following reduction in price of the item in the international market.