The government extended power purchase agreement (PPA) for another six months to import 250MW of electricity from the Indian open market under the Special Power and Energy Enhancement Act-2015 on Thursday.
The government deal to import electricity from the Indian open market - Power Trading Corporation of India (PTC) - expired recently. However, The Indian PTC has sought $US 0.0762 cents unit price for supplying electricity to Bangladesh.
"After negotiation, we settled the rate at $US 0.0749 cents. Currently Bangladesh is importing electricity from PTC at a rate of $US 0.0759 per unit," a senior official told the Daily Observer on Thursday.
A nine-member special committee led by the power secretary Dr. Ahmed Kaikaus took the decision to import 250MW power from the Indian open Market for another six months.
The government has been importing a total of 540MW of electricity from India since October 5, 2013 through Bheramara grid line. A number of Indian private companies showed interest in investing in Bangladesh including multinational companies such as Reliance, GMR and NTPC.
Currently Bangladesh imports a total of 500MW of electricity, 50 percent from the Indian public sector and the rest from the Indian private sector for increasing power supply in the country. Yet there is a 40-50 MW transmission loss, the sources said.
"We will discuss four major issues: importing fresh 500MW power from the Indian private sector, financing a new 400KV grid sub-station at Bheramara , taking measures to facilitate Bangladesh-India private sector to invest in Joint Venture projects (JV) by assessing direct investment in power and energy businesses and reviewing progress of Bangladesh-India Friendship project (the much talked- about 1320 coal fired Rampal power plant project)," a senior official said.
The power division will present the tariff before the cabinet committee on public purchase for approval immediately, concerned official said. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), in its 1, 659th board meeting, decided to extend the tenure of the PPA with Indian PTC. "But the Public Procurement Act-2006 and PPA-2008 do not allow extension of the tenure with PTC…so it would require to extend the tenure under a special act and the power division is doing it accordingly," added the official concerned.
Needs to be mentioned, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has already short-listed Indian firms to import electricity for 15 years period as per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on power sector cooperation between Bangladesh and India.
