Rampal power plant’s production halted again for coal shortage

Electricity generation at Rampal thermal power plant in Bagerhat has come to a halt once again due to a coal shortage, risking more frequent load shedding in the country's southern districts.

Anwarul Azim, deputy general manager of Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Ltd, said the production of the plant has been stopped since the night of 23 April due to a coal shortage.

"Measures have been taken to import coal. We hope to be able to resume production by 3 May," he added.

According to sources, mainly due to the dollar crisis, the Bangladesh Bank was in a tough position to open Letters of Credit (LCs) for the import of unnecessary and luxury goods for a long time. Coal also was on that list.

Earlier, power generation from Rampal thermal power plant stopped on 14 January this year due to a coal supply crisis. After the coal supply became normal one month later, it resumed operation.

The production of this mega project was stopped again on 15 April due to mechanical failure. The plant resumed production on the night of 18 April after a three-day shutdown.

However, the central bank exempted coal from the restriction after concerns arising from various quarters regarding power production. The bank ended up directing the state-owned banks to open LCs for coal import on 17 January.

Power generation from the 660 MW unit of the 1,320 MW thermal power project at Rampal was officially started on 6 September last year.

At the initial stage, it was decided to purchase 80 lakh tonnes of coal under a long-term contract to keep the power plant operational. So far, 267,752 tonnes of coal have been imported from Indonesia for the Rampal power plant.