Rampal power plant shut down again

Staff Reporter :
Production at the Rampal Thermal Power Plant came to a standstill again due to a technical glitch, with the shutdown occurring around 6:30am on Sunday.

This was the nine times the plant was forced to shut down since it started electricity generation in its 660MW first unit in mid-December, 2022.

Three shut-downs were because of a coal shortage, and six were because of technical problems, officials at the power plant said.

These abrupt stoppages have had a significant impact on the region’s power supply.

Saeed Akramullah, managing director of Bangladesh India Partnership Power Company Ltd (BIFPCL), confirmed the matter to the journalists and said, “I have received the news that the production has stopped. Hopefully, production will be resumed very soon.”

A senior official of the plant said the plant has two units, each with 660MW capacity, and both have been inoperative following the fault.
It may take two or three days to repair the fault, he said.

Frequent closures of the base-load power plant left power experts utterly surprised, raising suspicion about the quality of machineries used in the plant.

Experts also expressed their worries about the stress created on the national grid by the frequent closures of the power plant, saying that they put the entire national grid at risk.

The plant, which was initiated as a joint venture between India and Bangladesh in 2010, has been a significant endeavor aimed at boosting the region’s energy infrastructure.

According to the MoU, Rampal was supposed to begin production in 2018. However, the deadline was extended several times for various reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 1,320MW coal-fired power plant was set up at a cost of approximately $2 billion and is located in Rampal, Bagerhat, Khulna division.

The Maitree Super Thermal Power Project was constructed under the Indian government’s concessional financing scheme.