The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Asia Energy plans to build a 1000-MW power plant in its prospective Phulbari Coal Mine Project area for optimum utilization of the mine's coal.

The UK-based coal-mine developer has announced their plan recently considering the country's electricity demand, now increasing at a rate of about 8-10 percent a year.

However, implementation of the power project will depend on government approval to a development scheme submitted by the company in 2005.

The government is yet to approve the Asia Energy's development scheme as it was waiting for adoption of a national coal policy on the basis of which all the future development projects in the coal sector will get approval.

Now a draft coal policy has been framed and it is expected to be approved by the government within a few months, through a careful vetting of the maiden policy for the up-and-coming sector of the country's natural resources.

As per the development scheme, the Asia Energy will invest over US$2 billion to develop the Phulbari Coal Mine project through open-pit mining method from which it would annually produce 15 million metric tons of high-quality coal.

Asia Energy (Bangladesh) Corporation's CEO Gary N Lye said that the proposed power plant would consist of two units, each having 500-MW generation capacity.

He said his firm has a plan to extend the generation capacity of the power plant to 2000 MW considering the future electricity demand.

According to Gary, the power plant was designed to set up within the Phulbari Coal Mine area as a mine-mouth plant aiming to reduce the cost related to transportation of the coal.

The country has been facing a nagging electricity crisis as it could produce about 3500-3600 megawatts of power against a demand for more than 5000 MW. The shortage always prevails at 1500-2000 MW.

The government is aggressively trying to reduce the shortage by installing new plants. But fund constrains have been the main barrier.

Sources said if the government gave approval to the Asia Energy's development scheme, it could be a breakthrough in its effort to resolve the power crisis.

As per the Power System Master Plan 2005, the country will need 42,000 MW additional electricity by 2025 to meet the growing demand.

Of this, 37,000MW power will have to be generated with coal as the country's gas reserve is proceeding towards depletion.

Experts believe that the present gas reserve in the country would exhaust by 2015 if no new discovery could be made in the meantime.

The country's total proven and probable recoverable gas reserve is 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) from 22 gas fields, of which 5 tcf has already been consumed.

On the other hand, country's coal reserve is estimated to be 2,514 million tons.

The government is also considering not allowing any new gas-based power plant after 2011 because of limited gas reserve. Rather, its target is to encourage installing coal-based power plants after 2011.