The consortium of PIA Group LCC and Bangladesh Alternative Energy Systems Limited will set up the country’s largest wind-based power project at Anwara in Chittagong with 100 megawatt generation capacity.
Power Development Board (PDB) will buy per unit electricity for 12 US cents (Tk9.87) from the project for 20 years.
The tariff rate will remain unchanged, said the official sources.
The cabinet committee on public purchase on November 14 approved the plant under the Power and Energy Quick Supply (special provision) Act.
The company proposed to implement the project within 18 months from the effective date of contract signing with PDB.
Wind power technology is one of the cheapest clean power options.
Bangladesh is almost solely dependent on fossil fuel to generate power.
Not only does this cost a large amount of forex for the country, fossil fuels are finite resources and not environmentally sustainable in the long run.
The consortium Spain-Bangladesh joint-venture (JV) company PIA Group LCC, and Bangladesh Alternative Energy System Ltd (BAEC) had already conducted a wind mapping to assess the prospect of producing the electricity from the proposed plant, officials said.
The BD-Spain JV Company will invest about $220m for installing the wind-based power plant.
The company has already informed the Power Division to purchase nine acres of land at Anwara for setting up the power project.
Bangladesh is heavily dependent on natural gas and oil-based power plant. Most plants are run by the natural gas and furnace oil.
Wind power production is a new experience for the country.
The PIA Group LCC & BAEC JV will install 44 wind turbines each having 2.3mw capacity.
PDB officials said they had paid Tk69.17m as electricity purchase bills for 20 years.
On December 19 last year, the cabinet committee on public purchase approved IPP-Taylor Engineering and PH Consulting Inc. USA and Multiplex Green Energy Ltd JV for installing a 60mw capacity wind-based power station in Cox’s Bazar.
According to the growth, the demand for electricity was forecasted to reach 24,000mw in 2021 and 40,000mw in 2030.
Of the demand, the government has a plan to generate 10% of electricity from renewable energy sources.
A source in the power division said 50 to 200 megawatt of power could be generated from wind power in different coastal and inland sites.
Bangladesh Power Development Board installed wind mills in Kutubdia and Feni to generate 1.0mw of power from each project.
But the projects failed as the Kutubdia project having 1.0mw generation capacity with 50 turbines was hit hard by cyclone Aila and the Feni project having 225kw production capacity with four turbines was closed because of inappropriate wind mapping.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
