Sutiakhali Solar Power Plant to add 50MW to national grid
The project will generate renewable energy, especially environmentally-friendly solar power
Sutiakhali Solar Power Plant along the River Brahmaputra in Mymensingh will generate 50 megawatts of electricity, which will be supplied to the national grid.
The construction of all necessary installations has already been completed and the experimental operation of the environment-friendly project is due to start in the second week of October.
Then, after the official inauguration, the generated power will be added to the national grid.
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Under the government's Seventh Five-Year Plan, HDFC Sinpower Ltd is implementing the project in a joint venture of Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore at Sutiakhali char land in Mymensingh.
The construction of this eco-friendly solar power project at a cost of Tk800 crore on 174 acres of land in Sutiakhali, a char area of Mymensingh's Gauripur Upazila, is now almost complete.
An executive engineer of the Power Development Board (PDB) supervised the project under private investment and government supervision.
According to the government's plan, a target was set to generate 10% of the electricity used in the country through solar power by 2020.
The project titled "Sutiakhali 50 MW Solar Power Project" was started in 2014. The implementation of the project began after the signing of an Implementation Agreement with the Ministry of Power and Energy in late 2016, and a Power Purchase Agreement with the PDB in 2017.
After the extension of the project, production was set to start by June 30 this year. But the Chinese engineers involved in the project returned to their country to celebrate New Year, and they did not return on time due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
It caused the delay in the installation and connection of solar plates.
Project Director and PDB Executive Engineer Indrajit Debnath said, a good number of tasks under the project, including construction of office buildings, River Brahmaputra controlling dam, barbed wire fences, installation of solar plates over an area of one square kilometer, connection of ten box transmissions, construction of 132KVA transmission line with sub-station, have been done.
"Now, after equipment testing and commissioning, experimental solar power generation will start, and 50 MW of electricity will be added to the grid," he said.
HDFC Sinpower Ltd Director Sheikh Mohammad Shafiqul Islam said the project has been implemented following all the rules and regulations of the government.
"It is the largest and a mega project among the ongoing solar power projects in the country," he said.
If there were no pandemic, power generation would have been started six months ago, he added.
As the project has been completed by the extended time given by the government, he hopes that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would inaugurate the project.
