Rampal power plant’s production halted again for technical glitch
News Desk :
Power generation at Rampal thermal power plant in Bagerhat has been suspended again since Friday night due to a technical glitch.
An official of the power plant, wishing not to be named, said the production stopped at around 9:30pm Friday.
Anwarul Azim, deputy general manager of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL), could not be reached over phone for comments despite several attempts.
The Rampal thermal power plant was previously shut down on 16 July due to a fault in the turbine.
After the turbine was repaired, production resumed on 20 July.
Since its commissioning on 17 December last year, the power plant has been shut down six times in eight months.
Earlier, power generation from Rampal thermal power plant stopped on 14 January this year due to a coal supply crisis.
After the coal supply became normal one month later, it resumed operation.
The production of this mega project was stopped again on 15 April due to mechanical failure.
The plant resumed production on the night of 18 April after a three-day shutdown.
However, the central bank exempted coal from the restriction after concerns arising from various quarters regarding power production.
The bank ended up directing the state-owned banks to open LCs for coal import on 17 January.
Power generation from the 660 MW unit of the 1,320 MW thermal power project at Rampal was officially started on 6 September last year.
At the initial stage, it was decided to purchase 80 lakh tonnes of coal under a long-term contract to keep the power plant operational.
So far, 267,752 tonnes of coal have been imported from Indonesia for the Rampal power plant.
On September 6 last year, the first unit of the 1,320MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Project in Rampal officially began power production.
Initially, a long-term agreement to purchase 8 million tons of coal was made to keep the power plant running.
So far, 267,752 tons of coal have been imported from Indonesia for the Rampal power plant.
