M’singh solar power plant ready to roll
Set to add 50MW to nat’l grid from next month
A 50-megawatt solar power plant in Mymensingh’s Sutiakhali area, the largest of its kind, is ready to start operations by the first week of October.
The construction work of the megaproject has been finished following all the government rules and regulations, said Group Captain (Rtd) Sheikh Md Shafiqul Islam,director of HDFC Sinpower Ltd.
“It is the largest solar-based power plant among all the projects ongoing in the country and we are hopeful to go into production by the first week of the next month,” he said.
HDFC Sinpower Ltd, a joint venture of three companies from Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia, implemented the project.
The power plant would help meeting the government’s target of generating 10 percent of the country’s total electricity using renewable energy by 2021.
The power plant was established on a 144-acre land with an estimated cost of Tk 800 crore. The project started in 2017 and was scheduled to finish by July this year. It was, however, delayed due to coronavirus pandemic.
“A portion of the Chinese staffers, including engineers, went to their country to celebrate New Year but could not return on time due to the pandemic, causing delay to the project,” Shafiqul Islam said.
Indrajit Debnath, the project director and an executive director of Power Development Board (PDB) in Mymensingh, said solar plates were set up in 1 square-kilometre area for the power plant.
Connection of 10 transmission boxes, construction of 132-KV Transmission Tower, installation of four-kilometre underground cables to add the electricity to the national power grid at city’s Kewatkhali power grid, and lining of one kilometer over-head transmission line were done, he said.
Earlier, barbed wire was set up around the plant and solar pillars and dredging in the necessary rivers was completed, said the project director.
Currently, the project is on a testing phase, he added.
The government has targeted generation of 24,000MW of electricity by 2021. Of the electricity, 2,000MW of power would come from renewable sources, according to sources.
Primarily, the production cost will be between Tk 10 and Tk 13 per unit, but gradually the cost will come down, added the director.
Besides, the project has opened a horizon of work facilities for hundreds of people in the region, he said.
Source : thedailystar
