Khairul Alam : The first unit of the coal-fired Matarbari Power Plant was commissioned today initially adding 150 MW electricity to the national grid. “After successful synchronization with the national grid, 150 MW power was supplied to the national grid 11:58 am,” said Deputy Principal Information Officer Mir Aslam Uddin.
He said electricity generation and supply will also be increased gradually. With this the first of the two units of the ultra supercritical coal-fired thermal power plant at Matarbari in Moheshkhali starts its trial run from today.
Earlier, project director of Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal Fired Power Project Abul Kalam Azad told that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to commission the unit in December this year.
He said that the combined generation capacity of the plant was 1200 MW while the entire plant was set to go on full scale operation in March or April next year, instead of July 2024 as planned earlier.
Matarbari Power Plant is one of the government’s mega projects with Japanese assistance to be built at an estimated cost of Tk 51,800 crore while it is also one of Premier’s priority projects as well.
According to officials concerned the entire plant would require 10,000 tonnes of coal per day, each unit requiring 5,000 tonnes, while 2 lakh tonnes of coals were stored by now and 65,000 tonnes would reach the production site on August 7 next.
Four tanks having storage capacity of 1.7 million tonnes have already been built alongside two jetties at the project site to unload the coal to the tanks directly from the ships, the project director said.
The tanks have the capacity of storing coal for 60 days. It will require one and a half day or two days to unload coal from a ship.
The 1200 megawatts Matarbari power plant is being established on 1,608 acres of land in Matarbari and Dhalghata unions of Maheshkhali upazila of Cox’s Bazar district at a cost of Taka 52,000 crore. The Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCL) has been implementing the project.