Production at the newly-installed 412-megawatt (MW) power plant at Haripur of Narayanganj has been stopped due to technical glitches. It was only a month into the beginning of its test run with a limited capacity.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune Monday, Mostafa Kamal, managing director of Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB), said the production was halted last week as its gas-booster compressor was damaged.
He said the maintenance work would start next week but could not say when it would resume operation. “We started test run from March 28. It was supplying 70MW to the national grid for a few days,” added the official.
As per the project plans, the plant was initially supposed to supply 100MW to the national grid in the first phase, start full operation in July, and the test run to have begun four months ago.
The state-run EGCB constructed the plant with the assistance of Marubeni Corporation of Japan as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor and with $376m financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The gas-based combined cycle plant is the largest one built during the Awami League-led alliance government. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had laid the foundation stone of the plant on March 20, 2011.
During the last four years of the incumbent government, some 54 such plants were installed with the capacity of 3845MW. Sources at the Power Development Board said electricity generation in the country yesterday was 6087MW against a projected demand for 7000MW which is ever-increasing.
