Coal for Payra power plant arrives, generation to resume soon

Staff Reporter  :
Power generation at the recently shutdown Payra Thermal Power Plant is likely to resume on Sunday as a ship carrying more than 41,000 tonnes of coal has already reached the Payra port.

Authorities concerned said that a ship carrying more than 41,000 tonnes of coal from Indonesia has arrived. The vessel, MV Athena, flying the flag of the Marshall Islands, anchored in the inner channel of Payra port at 3 am on Friday.

Port official Ajijur Rahman told the media that coal unloading process is expected to require an additional two to three days. Consequently, the country’s largest power plant is anticipated to resume production on either Sunday or Monday.

Supervising Engineer of the Plant Shah Abdul Hasin said, MV Athena loaded with coal has anchored Payra port after days of its departure from Indonesia.

“The vessel is anchored in the inner channel of the port since 3am on Thursday. It requires two to three days to unload the coal,” he said.

About resumption of production at plant, he said that an acute coal shortage had forced the Payra Thermal Power plant to halt power generation, but now it is going to resume again.

“The first unit of the plant will resume its operation initially on June 25. The next unit will also start generation after the first one,” Abdul Hasib said.

Four more coal-laden ships will arrive at the port in the first week of July, the officials of the plant said.

The plant is capable of generating 1,244MW of electricity, which is 10% of the country’s total average production.

Due to acute shortfall of coal as the authority could not buy coal for dollar crisis, the first unit of the Payra thermal power plant was shut down on May 25.

Later on June 5, the authority was compelled to close the second unit as the coal could not arrive the port in due time as the government could not pay the outstanding payment.

At that time the entire country experienced acute load shedding amid the unbearable hot weather when a number of power plants including Payra had been shutting down due to gas, coal and oil crisis.

The government then assured that the Payra would resume production within two weeks.