As the country’s pandemic fear is slowly waning, relative normalcy is returning to the power sector after four months of continued disruption, a high official said.
“Even in the last month, we were worried about loan repayment for the ECA-funded (Export Credit Agency) projects having a combined capacity to produce 2,285 megawatts of electricity. Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has overcome the issues as the revenue collection soared back to over 90 per cent in the power sector,” BPDB Chairman Engineer Balayet Hossain told The Business Post.
The demand for electricity has increased to a daily average of 11,700MW now from 8,500MW in April and 10,000MW in May during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are now getting our capacity back to repay any loans or payment since the revival of the sector began from July 2020,” the BPDB chief said.
BPDB is now implementing seven power projects with fundings from the HSBC, ICBC and Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.
The projects include Khulna 330MW Power Plant, Bibiyana unit-3 Gas Based Combined Cycle Power Plant Project, Shahjibazar 330MW CCPP Project, Chapainawabganj 100MW HFO based Peaking Power Project, Ghorasal 365MW CCPP Project, Re-Powering project of Ghorasal 3rd Unit and Extension of Barapukuria Coal Fired Thermal Power Station by 275MW unit-3.
Power Cell, a wing of the Power Division, has already asked BPDB whether it will be able to repay the loans of the ongoing projects or use the force majeure provision options to avoid the obligations and liabilities due to circumstances beyond their control.
“We only have to make payments for only two power projects of 4 billion taka each. So, we don’t have any problem in continuing with the repayment,” BPDB chairman said.
He added the BPDB had a plan to seek force majeure measures for delaying the payment amid the pandemic.
BPDB has borrowed 1.5 billion US dollars to implement the seven power projects. Of the projects, five have so far began with electricity production.
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