Shawdesh Desk:

Sembcorp Green Infra Limited of Singapore has proposed to supply 50 megawatt of electricity to Bangladesh through existing Baharampur-Bheramara Indo-Bangla grid interconnectivity.

The tariff of the electricity will be $7.35 per unit including 0.48 cents of the transmission charge and loss.

This indicates that the proposed price is costlier than the existing power import prices under public and private arrangements.

“We have an option to lower the cost,” an official, however, said on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Bangladesh and Nepal decided to exchange 50 MW of electricity from Kathmandu at the 4th joint steering committee meeting on August 28 this year in Nepal.

Then, both parties agreed to sign a tripartite agreement with India. But, Indian NVVN has yet to respond to the issues so far.

In response to the proposal, Indian Power Exchange proposed to supply 50 MW of electricity through the existing grid line at Bheramara-Baharampur between Bangladesh and India.

Once, the government will allow then the Indian counterpart will supply a portion of the electricity on top priority basis.

According to the official proposal, the Singaporean company will supply the electricity for a 25-year period from solar and wind power having a plant factor of 85 percent.

Despite supplying partial electricity within 12 months, it will be able to supply full electricity within 24 months.

Now, Sembcorp Energy India Ltd is supplying 450MW of electricity from India’s Andhra Pradesh under Indo-Bangla bilateral deal through Bheramara Baharampur grid line.

According to the proposal, the existing Indo-Bangla grid line is able to transmit 1000 MW of electricity. But, it was able to utilise only 956 MW of electricity at maximum due to transmission line loss at the withdrawal point.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) also predicted that the Bheramara Baharampur gridline to be unutilised. So, it suggested importing at least 50 MW of electricity at that point, the BPDB letter read.

The government presently imports around 900 MW of electricity against the capacity of 1000 MW from India since October 5, 2013 through Bharamara grid line.

Of the volume, 250 MW of power comes from Indian state-owned NVVN’s unallocated quota at an average market tariff of Tk 2.78 per kilowatt (per unit).

Besides, another 250MW comes through the Indian open market through PTC with per unit tariff of $0.0749 excluding transmission charges.

The government has a deal to import 1160 MW of electricity with India.

Bangladesh will also import 600 MW of electricity from the Indian state of Jharkhand early in 2023.