New Ashuganj power plant adds 400MW to national grid

The new plant of Ashuganj Power Station has started commercial operation, adding another 400MW of electricity to the national grid that has the capacity of generating 22,500MW per day. 

"We started commercial power generation at the plant on Saturday and will continue operation without interruption," Ashuganj Power Station Company Managing Director AMM Sajjadur Rahman told The Business Standard. 

The gas-run plant, called 420MW Combined Cycle Power Plant (East), has gone into operation at a time when the country is slowly getting rid of hour-long frequent load shedding caused by a global hike in power generating-fuel prices. 

Ashuganj Power Station started the construction of the combined cycle power plant in 2018 and had a target to complete it by 2021. However, due to various complications and the pandemic situation, the construction work was completed late at the end of September this year at the cost of $180.3 million.

Yet, the plant could not begin operation due to a lack of gas – the raw material. 

Talking to TBS, Project Director of the plant Abdul Majid said they earlier started experimental power generation on 15 November. 

"Though the power plant has the capacity to generate 400MW per day, the production will ultimately depend on gas supply [to the plant]," he added.

However, they are yet to estimate the power production cost per unit at the new plant.

Overall, Ashuganj Power Station, with its four existing plants, has been adding 1,000MW of electricity to the national grid. The Bangladesh Power Development Board owns more than 91% share of the company.