Two repowering projects of 825 MW at Ghorashal Power Station fail to come on board on schedule

At a time when the government has been emphasising austerity and efficiency in the energy sector, two repowering projects aiming to add 825 MW to the national grid at the state-owned Ghorashal Power Station have missed their scheduled deadline to start operating.

It is cheaper for the government to purchase electricity from state-owned plants than private ones with their higher tariffs.

Repowering is the process of replacing older power stations, or units at power stations, with newer ones that either have greater capacity or more efficiency, resulting in a net increase of power generated.

According to a government document, the two projects are the repowering of 416 MW Unit-3 and the 409 MW repowering of Unit -4 at the Ghorashal Power Station (GPS).

Official sources said after the government had undertaken the two projects more than 7 years ago as part of a plan to repower the two units in order to generate electricity at relatively cheaper cost using the available gas supply facilities.

The government selected two separate EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractors for the two projects, which were awarded the jobs on turnkey basis.

Of these a consortium of GE (Switzerland) GmbH and CMC, China was selected for unit-3 of the Ghorashal Power Station while China Energy Engineering Group, Guangdong Power Engineering Co. Ltd. (CEEC) was awarded unit-4.

Unit 3: At least 9 months more

The state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) signed the EPC contract with Consortium of GE (Switzerland) GmbH and CMC, China in February 2016 to implement the 416 MW unit-3 combined cycle power project.

The agreement was effective on January 22 in 2017 setting a deadline for the simple cycle’s commercial operation date (COD) in January 2019 while  the combined cycle’s COD was set for September 2022.

The contractor failed to complete its job as per the schedule.

The document says the issue of the project was discussed in a review meeting at the Power Division on 14 November, where it was informed that the project will need at least 9 months more time to start its commercial operation as the “hot “commissioning of turbines is not possible before that.

“Due to problems with the blades on the compressor side of the gas turbine, it now remains shut. The tender document was sent to the contractor for the work,” it was mentioned as the review meeting’s resolution.

Unit 4: Russia in the mix

On the other hand, the document shows, the BPDB signed a contract with the contractor on June 6 in 2016 for implementing the repowering job of the 409 MW unit-4 combined cycle power project within 3 years and four months.

As per the agreement, the COD of the simple cycle of the project was set for April 2018 while the combined cycle’s COD for October 2019.

Although after a six month-delay the simple cycle came into operation in October 2018, the combined cycle has failed to come into commercial operation till now.

The issue was also discussed in the review meeting of the Power Division where it was informed by the BPDB that the commissioning of the Steam Turbine of the project was not possible because of different problems including “high rotor eccentricity and high shaft vibration”.

As per the meeting’s resolution, it is mentioned that the contractor was asked to submit a new proposal by contracting with the original equipment manufacturer, said to be Russian.

The work needs further approval of the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement (CCGP) as the existing contract has no scope to allow additional cost for the steam turbine’s required repairs.

Despite repeated attempts, BPDB’s additional chief engineer Abdul Basit, who was the project director, could not be reached on his mobile phone to comment on this story.  

The Power Division official said the cost of power generation through government plants is much lower than that of private plants.

“But as such public sector plants are not coming into operation as per schedule, the government will be deprived of cheaper electricity while it’s struggling with buying electricity at a higher rate from the private sector,” said an official who wanted not to be named.