India’s Adani Group has placed a fresh proposal to export another 1,600 MW of electricity to Bangladesh, according to highly placed sources in Dhaka.
"The entire amount of electricity will be from renewable sources. Of this, 1,000 MW is solar power while the remaining 600 MW is from hydropower," a highly placed source in the Power Division recently told UNB.
Currently, Adani Group, the Indian conglomerate, is exporting 1,600 MW of electricity from its Godda power plant in eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, exclusively built for Bangladesh under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
The new proposal came from Adani Group very recently when its head Gautam Adani visited Dhaka and paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, according to official sources who requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
The sources said that 600 MW of the proposed hydropower will be coming from Nepal where Adani Group will set up a plant.
On the other hand, the proposed 1,000 MW solar power will be coming from India where Adani is now setting up renewable energy plants.
"We heard Adani Group was given a green signal on its proposal", another highly placed source told UNB.
He also mentioned that the initiative to respond to the Adani Group's proposal is part of the government's plan to raise its share of renewable energy to 40 per cent in the total power generation by 2041 when the country plans to increase its generation capacity to 60,000 MW.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid recently said that the generation of 9930 MW of electricity from renewable sources is in the pipeline in Bangladesh.
He also informed that Bangladesh is in process to import electricity to be generated from renewable sources from neighbouring countries as the government has given special importance to renewable energy.
He said that 1,194 MW of electricity is now generated from renewable sources, but only 825.23 MW is coming to the national grid.
Another 1,262 MW power generation projects are underway through 30 projects from renewable energy and 8,668 MW power generation projects are under process, he added.
Nasrul said this when the outgoing Danish Ambassador Winnie Estrup Peterson called on him at his ministry office in the secretariat last week.
A joint venture of two Danish renewable energy firms have submitted an investment proposal to the government of Bangladesh to develop a commercial, utility-scale offshore wind project with an initial capacity of 500 MW, valued at $1.3 billion off the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
The proposal came from the world’s leading dedicated greenfield renewable energy investor and developers, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP).
Banshkhali-Meghnaghat power line goes live
Meanwhile, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has commissioned its 400 kV power transmission line from Banshkhali in Chattogram via Maduna Ghat to Meghna Ghat in Narayanganj, reports UNB.
The 276 km long transmission line was commissioned at 5:16pm on Tuesday, the PGCB said, adding that it was made operational from the Meghna Ghat end.
The line will supply electricity from the under construction SS Power Plant at Banshkhali via Maduna Ghat of Chattogram to the newly constructed 400/230 KV grid substation at Meghna Ghat.
Earlier, a 400 kV transmission line from Meghna Ghat to Dhaka's Aminbazar was commissioned at full capacity on July 23.
As both the lines are connected through Dhaka-Chittagong 400 KV line, the high voltage power transmission infrastructure has now become more intensified.
The longest 400 kV line will serve as the backbone in power transmission between Dhaka and Chattogram.
