The government is likely to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA)
with Indian private power trader PTC India Ltd within a few days to
import 250 MW from October. This will be an addition to the 250 MW
of power to be imported Indian under a government-to-government
agreement signed between Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and
Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian state-owned NTPC
(National Thermal Power Corporation). This means Bangladesh will
import a total of 500 MW of electricity from India. Of this, 250 MW
will come from the NTPC and the remaining 250 MW from private company
PTC India. Official sources said the deal between PDB and VVN of
NTPC was signed in February last year to get 250 MW power. The tariff
of the power was initially determined at Rs 2.80 (approximately Tk
4.66) per kilowatt hour (each unit). In addition to this cost,
Bangladesh will require to spend around Tk 0.50 more — Tk 0.04 in
commission to the VVN, Tk 0.20 in wheeling charges to the Power Grid
Corporation of India (PGCI) and Tk 0.23 also in wheeling charges to
the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) — to feed each unit of the
imported power into the national grid. But this tariff will finally
be determined by the Indian Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
(CERC) considering the price of import-start time. Indian power tariff
is set from time to time by the CERC. On the other hand, each unit
of electricity from PTC India will cost Tk 6.34, a much higher price
compared to NTPC’s offered tariff. Power production cost at the
Bangladesh state-owned generation company is below Tk 5 per unit.
Bangladesh’s Cabinet Purchase Committee in July approved this tariff
of the PTC. Following the Cabinet body’s approval, both the PDB and
the PTC initialed a power purchase deal. The Power Division then
sent the deal to the Law Ministry for legal vetting. “Once vetting
is completed, both sides will sign the final deal. We think, this will
happen within two weeks so that a total 500 MW of power import from
Indian public and private sectors could start at the same time in
October next,” said Power Division’s Joint Secretary Anwar Hossain.
“Our target is to get power from both the NTPC and the PTC at the same
time,” he added. Meanwhile, the construction of a 117-km long high
voltage transmission line from Bahrampur substation in Murshidabad of
India to Bheramara grid substation of Kushtia in Bangladesh has been
completed recently. Two high capacity grid substations in the two
countries are also ready for power transmission. The electricity
will be transmitted at 400KV level under a deal between the Power Grid
Company of India (PGCI) and the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh
(PGCB). – UNB
