After successfully generating power from its first unit, the privately-owned SS Power Plant started commercial production from its second unit at 6:18am on Sunday (October 22), said authorities.
The commercial production of the first unit started at 12:01 pm on September 18.
Both the units of SS Power Plant, the country’s largest privately-owned power plant, are now commercially producing electricity to supply sufficient power as per the demand of the national grid.
A high-level delegation of PDB visited the plant on October 19 before starting commercial production.
The delegation included PDB Dhaka Chief Engineer ABM Ziaul Haque, Coal Power Generation Director Rukon Uddin, Deputy Director of the same organization Nazmul Haque, PDB Deputy Secretary (Company Affairs) Nazmul Huda, PDB Dhaka Subdivisional Engineer (Energy Auditing) Tamim Khan, Directorate of Coal Power Generation (DCPG) Assistant Engineer Sanjida Parveen, Director (Design and Inspection-2) of PDB Dhaka Shahidul Islam, Superintendent Engineer of Energy Auditing Unit of PDB Dhaka Sohail Hossain Serazi and others.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of SS Power Plant Ibadat Hossain Bhuiyan said, “This is very happy news for us. With the cooperation of PDB and all concerned we have been able to start commercial production of the second unit of SS Power Plant. Now both the units of this power plant are able to feed into the national grid as expected. The PDB delegation has already seen the operation of the plant on site. They will give us a Commercial Operation Date (COD) certificate. The implementation of the 25-year contract with the government will also begin by going into commercial production.”
Incidentally, this coal-based thermal power plant of 1,320 megawatt capacity of Banskhali was officially connected to the national grid on January 14 this year. The power plant has two units of 660 MW capacity. The first unit started trial production on May 24 and the second unit went into trial production on June 28.
The power plant is jointly owned by Chittagong-based industrial group S Alam Group and Chinese companies Sepco 3 and HTG. The private coal-based thermal power project has been constructed at a cost of 2.6 billion US dollars which is more than 28 thousand crores in taka. Out of this, S Alam Group holds 70 percent and the remaining 30 percent is owned by Chinese companies Sepco 3 and HTG.
SEPCO 3 ‘A Chinese Global Partner for the World’ is a renowned EPC company with rich experience and excellence in the power sector. It has taken up the EPC of SS Power-1 plant and successfully completed the construction of high-quality power plant within the said time frame.
Experts expect that the full operation of the power plant will lead to the expansion of local industries, improvement of the living standards of the common people and the overall economic progress of the country. Compared to other power plants, SS power plants will provide electricity at a lower cost. If it is in full production, it will be able to supply about 2.93 crore units of electricity per day and about 88 crore units per month.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping jointly inaugurated the SS Power Plant in 2016 after signing an agreement between the Power Development Board (PDB) and SS Power. After the commencement of operations, the SS Power Plant has been successfully brought into full production much faster than other power projects.
