Titas Gas, the largest gas distribution company in the country, currently requires 750mmcf of gas per day to meet the demands of 20 gas-based power plants in Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions.
The project has missed its deadline twice without facing any penalties from the Bangladesh Power Development Board due to the uncertainty of gas supply. The $520 million Unique Group project was originally scheduled to start commercial operations in November 2022 but it was found to have 92% work progress as of 15 March. Titas Gas has signed two separate gas supply agreements with Unique Group and Reliance to supply gas to their power plants located near Summit's Meghnaghat-II Power Plant. In addition to Summit Group's plant, two other gas-based power plants sponsored by local conglomerate Unique Group and Indian multinational infrastructure company Reliance, with a combined capacity to generate 1,334MW of electricity, missed their commissioning deadlines due to energy supply uncertainty. But the price has started to decrease," he said. "We have seen the gas shortage because the government suspended importing LNG following its price volatility. When asked about how the plant would get the necessary primary fuel to produce electricity amid the mounting gas shortage, he told The Business Standard that they had a contract with Titas Gas, which had confirmed the gas supply. Previously, on 3 November last year, while visiting the plant construction site in Meghnaghat, Narayanganj, Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan announced that the power plant was expected to start commercial operation by June this year. However, the project is now on track according to a new schedule for September-October this year, the company claimed. According to the BPDB's own data, it spent Tk67,586 crore in the last decade for paying capacity charges to the private power plants that remained idle due to a lack of demand. The government will have to pay a "capacity charge" of Tk2,600 crore annually to the idle plants.Ĭapacity charge is what the government must pay whether or not electricity is produced upon commissioning of a plant. If the gas supply situation does not improve in the national grid, the new power plants will stay idle, they added.
Due to the poor gas supply, many gas-fired plants are sitting idle or operating partially, and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is forced to rely on costly liquid fuel-based power plants.
Sector insiders have said the existing gas-based power plants in both public and private ownership currently require around 1,500 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas daily, but the actual supply stands at 950-1,000mmcf. Three new large gas-fired power plants located in Meghnaghat, on the outskirts of Dhaka, are getting ready to go online in a few months – at a time when the existing gas-based plants are operating at reduced capacity due to poor and insufficient gas supply.
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