India’s state-owned NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam looks set to start test transmission of electricity to Bangladesh on September 27, sending 50 megawatt to the grid on the first day and raising it gradually to 175MW on September 30.
The commercial transmission is expected from the middle of October.
“The NVVN will start test transmission with limited capacity on September 27. Both sides have already completed construction of transmission lines and substations,” acting managing director of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Chowdhury Alamgir Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune on Sunday.
He said that the test transmission will continue till September 30.
For the transmission, PDB signed a supplementary agreement with Indian NVVN on September 18 on payment of Tk35.9m in advance for trial transmission, which will be adjusted to the project cost later on.
The cost of per kilowatt electricity is expected to be Tk4 plus Tk0.80 wheeling charge.
The PGCB will charge Bangladesh Power Development Board Tk0.23 per unit.
Dhaka and New Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding to import 500 megawatt of electricity in January 2010 during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India.
NVVN and Power Trading Corporation India Limited (PTC) will supply 250 megawatt each.
Bangladesh was supposed to get 250MW of electricity from India in July 2013, but the deadline was missed because of the delay in setting up transmission line on the Indian side.
Kazi Ishtiak Hasan, project director of Grid Interconnection between Bangladesh and India, said: “The construction of 27km 400KV transmission line and the High Voltage Direct Current substations has been completed in Bangladesh side while India has constructed 71 km line.”
A total of 400KV DC electricity would be supplied to Bheramara of Bangladesh from Baharampur of India through substations at Ishwardi and Khulna, he added.
On July 28, the cabinet committee on public purchase has approved the import of 250MW electricity from India’s open market.
PTC will supply electricity for three years from the power plants in West Bengal and the eastern region at a tariff rate of Tk6.34 with Tk0.31 wheeling charge.
Sources at the Power Development Board said electricity generation in the country on Sunday was about 6,200MW against a projected demand for 7,000MW.