Newsbase.com | 12 March 2019
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Singapore’s Summit Power International aims to invest US$6 billion in expanding its generating portfolio in Bangladesh by at least 3,000 MW.
The company currently operates 1,940 MW of capacity in Bangladesh at more than 12 sites, supplying 9% of the country’s electricity.
Summit seeks to raise capacity in a bid to meet 20% of power demand, Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan told the Dhaka Tribune.
Summit, the biggest private power generator in Bangladesh, is “working with the government” in Dhaka to secure more plant development contracts, he said, but gave no details. The firm said it wanted to add another 3,000 MW of capacity.
Its latest projects put into operation are a 300-MW heavy fuel oil (HFO) unit and a 149-MW gas-fired thermal power plant (TPP), both at Kodda.
The majority of power plants in Bangladesh are fuelled by natural gas, but domestic offshore production cannot keep up with demand. The country is building more coal-fired TPPs as well as installing an FSRU to bring in LNG.
Summit said it was also involved in the development of an FSRU, which is linked to a 590-MW gas fired TPP being built by Summit at Meghnaghat.
Bangladesh has only 20,000 MW of installed capacity for a population of 165 million. The government has said it wants to double capacity to 40,000 MW by 2030.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina plans to visit China in March or April during which she will seek financial assistance to improve Bangladesh’s transmission infrastructure.
The government has also urged industry to help avoid power cuts and shortages by operating more in off-peak hours.
Summit has calculated that Bangladesh’s installed generating capacity per million people was less than half that of Indonesia and only 20% of that in Vietnam.