Rampal power plant resumes generation after 23-day closure

Dhaka, May 18 -- After a 23-day closure due to a coal crisis, production has resumed at the Rampal Thermal Power Plant in Bagerhat, generating 260 megawatts of electricity which is now being supplied to the national grid.

Amid this situation, the resumption of Rampal power plant will add some relief to cut the severe load shedding in the upcoming days, concerned department said.

Rampal Power Plant authority told the media that the first unit of the Rampal Thermal Power Plant started production at 9pm on Tuesday.

Prior to this, production at the power plant had been halted since April 23 due to a coal crisis. After the arrival of coal from Indonesia, production resumed at the plant.

On April 25, the Bangladeshi vessel "BNS Basundhara Impex" brought 49,700 metric tonnes of coal from Indonesia.

The vessel docked at Chittagong Port on May 9, and 19,500 metric tonnes of coal were transferred to smaller lighters. Among them, 9,000 metric tonnes reached the power plant in Rampal on May 13.

Khandaker Riazul Haque, Assistant Manager of Togi Shipping and Logistics, the local shipping agent of the vessel "BNS Basundhara Impex," told the media that on Monday, 10,700 metric tonnes of coal were transported to the Rampal Power Plant through the Mongla-Bangabandhu-Ghoshiakhali Channel.

The remaining 30,000 metric tonnes of coal on the vessel will arrive at Mongla Port on May 16.

Deputy General Manager of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited Anwarul Azim told the media that the first unit of the power plant resumed production at 9pm on Tuesday. Now 260MW of electricity is being

Anwarul Azim, Deputy Managing Director of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited, told the media that on Tuesday night at 9:00 pm, the first unit of the Rampal Power Plant had successfully synchronized its electricity production with the national grid.

"The 260MW of electricity generated are being supplied to the national grid. The power production will be increased according to the demand of the National Load Dispatch Center," he said.

He further mentioned that this power plant used to generate a regular output of 560-570 megawatts. Out of the generated electricity, 460MW were supplied to the national grid in Dhaka, and 200 megawatts were supplied to Khulna-Bagerhat. The center requires 5,000 metric tonnes of coal daily for regular production. However, due to a coal crisis, the power production at the plant was halted since the night of April 23, he added.

The entire country caught in the grip of severe load shedding due to the interruption of continuous liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply from two floating terminals in Maheshkhali to the power plants.

This sudden disruption had badly affected the electricity production, industrial operations and cooking facilities in various regions of the country, particularly Dhaka and Chattogram. However, the government said that it would take some two weeks for the uninterrupted gas supply to return to normalcy and the load shedding situation would improve with the next two days. Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from The New Nation. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htlive.com