Unit-1 of the 1329MW Rampal Coal-fired power plant will resume production from Wednesday, still under a test run that started in August before being discontinued last month. According to official sources, Unit-1, having 660 MW capacity, was forced to shut down on January 14 due to shortage of coal supply.The authorities of the power plant were unable to open any letter of credit (LC) to import coal due to the dollar crisis. After a lot of persuasion at the government’s policy level, LC-opening was allowed for importing coal and the supplier sent a consignment of 30,000 metric tons. “The imported coal reached the jetty of the power plant on February 9 and now we are set to resume operation at the unit-1 of the plant from Wednesday,” said Anwarul Azim, deputy general manager of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) told UNB.
The BIFPCL, a joint venture of Indian state-owned NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), is the owner and operator of the Rampal power plant. The official said another that another consignment of 50,000 MT of coal is also coming to the country soon. He also informed that the plant’s unit-2 is expected to come into operation in June this year. Sources said though the unit-1 is now under test run as the BPDB which has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the BIFPCL has not given the go-ahead yet for start of the commercial operation of the plant.
Meanwhile, BIFPCL officials said that State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid is expected to visit the plant on Thursday.
