The government and Summit Group could not reach an agreement over the price of power from the group’s barge-mounted power plant in Khulna in a meeting yesterday as the government proposed to buy more electricity after the expiry of a 15-year old contract on Saturday.
“We discussed the issue on Sunday to continue purchasing the electricity. They said they would sell power at the current rate during the extended period but we asked them to revise it downward,” Power Secretary Monowar Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.
The secretary and his team would sit again with the owners of the power plant on October 20.
The meeting was held between the Power Division and Khulna Power Company Ltd (KPCL), which is under Summit Group.
Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan was present at the meeting.
KPCL is the first Independent Power Producer (IPP) of the country, established in 1997 under the Private Sector Power Generation Policy.
It owns and operates a 110 MW barge-mounted power plant that commenced its operation in October 1998 and supplies electricity to the national grid.
Nine generator sets are mounted on one barge and ten on the other. Each barge is approximately 91 meters long and 24 meters wide.
The plant consumes about 600 MT of Heavy Fuel Oil daily to generate 110 MW power by the 19 generators on the two barges, which are stationed in Khalishpur, Khulna.