The Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd (PGCB) has signed another deal with Germany-based company Siemens AG to set up a High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) substation in Bheramara, Kushtia to import electricity from India.
This is the same company that set up the existing HVDC substation in Bheramara, which tripped on November 1, 2014 and caused a massive black out in the country.
The deal was signed by PGCB Company Secretary Md Ashraf Hossain and Siemens officials Wolfgang Richard Claire and Manuel Heiser at a hotel in Dhaka on Monday.
The ceremony was also attended by Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam and Additional Secretary Dr Ahmed Kaikaus, PGCB Director Masum Al Biruni and Executive Directors Mohammad Shafiqullah and Paresh Chandra Roy, Siemens AG CEO Mirko Dusel, the project's chief engineer Farid Uddin Ahmed and project director QM Shafiqul Islam, among others.
An HVDC substation is a specialised substation which forms a terminal for high-voltage direct current transmission lines. It converts direct current to alternating current and vice versa.
The PGCB signed the first deal with Siemens AG following the 8th Joint Steering Committee meeting between Bangladesh and India on power sector cooperation in New Delhi on October 10, 2014.
Siemens will construct the second HVDC substation and hand it over to the PGCB within June 2018, according to the new agreement.
The project cost is estimated at Tk1,128 crore, Tk874 crore of which will be provided by the Asian Development Bank and the rest will be provided by the government.
Once finished, Bangladesh will import 500MW of electricity from India through the new substation.
Bangladesh is already importing 600MW of electricity from India; 500MW of that electricity is being imported through the existing HVDC substation in Bheramara from Bahrampur, India, and 100MW is being imported from Tripura via Comilla.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
