The government is going to set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) based 850-megawatt power plant in Khulna, according to official sources.

The LNG is to be imported from neighbouring India.

Power Division officials said the state-owned North West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL) has already signed an agreement with GAIL (India) Limited for getting supply of the LNG from its plant in West Bengal.

“The NWPGCL has already started work to appoint consultant for studying feasibility to build the power plant. Now the company is searching for concessional credits from foreign lenders,” a senior Power Division official told the FE Wednesday.

A preliminary project proposal would be sent to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) soon for mobilizing funds from different lenders, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and Japan.

He said they had already signed an agreement with the Indian company, GAIL (India) Ltd, to get the fuel supply through pipeline to Khulna, the proposed site for the LNG-fired plant.

The GAIL authorities are working to set up a floating storage and re-gasification plant (FSRU) for the LNG in Midnapore coastal area of West Bengal.

“We would import the LNG from the FSRU for the proposed 750MW to 850MW LNG-based power station in Khulna,” the official said.

According to the Power Division, the Bangladesh government would need to install a 126-kilometre pipeline through Kolkata-Petrapole-Jessore belt for bringing the liquefied gas from the Midnapore FSRU.

The power division official said the Indian firm will set up 80km pipeline from Kolkata to Petrapole land-port, opposite to the Benapole land-port in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government-owned Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited (GTCL) will set up 46km pipeline from Petrapole to Jessore.

He said GTCL has already installed gas-transmission pipeline from Jessore to Khulna and it will be used to import the LNG for the power plant.

Bangladesh is trying to cut its dependence on natural gas for power generation as the fuel is depleting rapidly. Nearly 75 percent of power is generated from the natural gas in Bangladesh.

Now the country is switching over to other fuels like coal, LNG, wind and solar energy to generate power for ensuring energy-supply security to Bangladesh’s growing economy.

Earlier, the government had taken initiative to set up LNG-based power plant in Chittagong by importing it through vessels. The government has undertaken a project to set up an FSRU in Anwara of Chittagong and a pipeline to the land area for generating power.

Bangladesh had also signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman for getting supply of LNG for the proposed power generation.

Source: The Financial Express