Photo: Messenger
With the power and gas demand going up in the summer season, coal-based mega plants are supporting to ease load-shedding as they account for 27 per cent of the total electricity generation and supply to the national grid.
Industry insiders think Petrobangla currently cannot provide an adequate amount of gas to the national grid as gas production has depleted and importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) has also got expensive. So, the coal-based power plants are playing a key role in managing load-shedding and meeting the demand.
According to Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), on Saturday till 5pm, generation was recorded at 13,989MW against the demand of 15,200MW.
Of that, 7,363MW came from gas-based plants, 1,405MW from fuel oil-based plants, 3,768MW from coal-based plants, 30MW from hydro plants, 305MW from solar-based plants, and 19MW from wind-based plants.
However, Matarbari Coal Power Plant supplies 575MW, SS Power-I Ltd 1,224MW, Payra Thermal Power Plant 1,244MW, Rampal Power Station 1,234MW, and Barishal Power Plant 307MW, according to Bangladesh Power Development Board.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told The Daily Messenger “When we understood that gas is depleting fast, we undertook the coal-based power generation projects. So, during the gas crisis, these projects are contributing as much as we need.”
“Moreover, more coal-based capacity is waiting to generate power. Still, we cannot utilise the Matarbari plant’s full capacity. Some other coal-based plants are in the pipeline that will serve more. Besides, coal is currently cheaper than LNG,” he added.
Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sorkar told The Daily Messenger, “We cannot supply gas and LNG as per the demand as gas production is depleting fast. So, the government has to deploy the coal-based plants.”
PGCB data shows on Saturday, load-shedding was recorded at 1,195MW, but the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) is managing load-shedding skilfully. The NLDC does not give long load-shedding in an area and maintains a ratio. As a result, people of the country are facing less load-shedding than last year’s peak season.
Petrobangla officials said daily gas supply last month was more than 2,800 million cubic feet. In the previous month, about 3,000 million cubic feet of gas was supplied to the national grid.
Earlier, the Energy Division projected the demand for power at 17,800MW, but on Saturday, it stood at 13,989MW, according to the Bangladesh Power Development Board, while load-shedding was about 1,200MW.
Messenger/Disha
