Shawdesh desk:

The power plants authorities cannot procure additional coals for future amid pressure on dollar reserve although price of the fuel product dropped significantly in the international market.

Now, the shipment cost is $ 110 for procuring per ton coal which was $480 in August last year, according to the industry insiders.

If the plant managers can procure coal now, the procurement cost will be dropped by $ 370 per ton. The savings is equivalent to Tk 39,590 per ton of coal.

Officials in Power Division and coal-powered power plants mentioned that the production cost of electricity can be brought down to Tk 5 per unit (kilowatt per hour) if the coal can be procured at current rate.

The present production rate is around Tk 17 to 22 per unit as the price of coal was high in last quarter of 2022.

Concerned people termed the present time as ‘best season’ to procure low-cost coal for next six months availing current rate.

Power Division senior secretary Habibur Rahman said the coal cannot be preserved for long time as aqueous vapor damages the raw material.

“We procure coal on demand. Now, the procurement goes tough amid dollar crunch in banking sector. However, the Power Division does not import coal, ” Rahman said suggesting to talk to the executives of power plant who import the item.

International market rates suggested that the price of 6332 kilocalorie coal was $ 79 per ton in 2020. The Payra plant uses 5050 kilocalorie coal and other plants take 4600 kilocalorie. The power plants get discount after fixing the procurement.

Now the power plants in Bangladesh are consuming 48.74 thousand tonnes of coal per day.

After commissioning new plants in Matarbari and Rampal, the demand will be increased significantly. Industry insiders suggested that the power plant authorities should procure the coal for increasing demand to avoid possible risk of power shortage in the future.

According to an official assesment, if any plant utilises 80 percent of capacity in power generation, the country will get around 134.78 million units electricity. If the producer saves Tk 3 per unit, the country can relieve pressure on forex reserve worth Tk 404.35 million per day.

The savings would be Tk 72.78 billion in six months operations, according to the official.

Finance Division gives subsidy worth Tk 380 billion to Power Division each fiscal year for geneating electricity.

Bangladesh Bank recently injected $ 131 million to Payra coal-powred power plant out of total outstanding of $429 million.

A top official of coal-powered power plant said that the entrepreneurs along with advisor Towfiq Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister Nasrul Hamid and Senior Secretary Habibur Rahman recently met Bangladesh Bank authorities.

“We failed to convince the central bank to arrange dollar for power sector immediately to get benifits from low-cost coal import and other aspects for smooth power generation,” he said.

Now, Bangladesh  Power Development Board (BPDB) is now producing electricity at a cost of Tk 22.1 which can be lowered to Tk 9 through utilising the ‘low-cost’ coal.

There are 56 power plants that have capacity to produce 5,541 megawatt electricity.