Dhaka North 42.5 MW WTE Power Plant

Current Status: Preparation
------------------------------------


Aminbazar 42.5 MW WTE Power Plant, also called Dhaka North Waste-to-Energy Power Plant, is a proposed power plant to be situated in Aminbazar area under Savar Upazila of Dhaka District in Bangladesh (23.7894, 90.3278). The power plant is sponsored by WTE Power Plant North Dhaka Private Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC). The power plant was proposed to be installed as an Independent Power Producer (IPP) on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis (TBS 2021).

Capacity

According to the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the sponsor, the power plant will be constructed with an installed capacity of 42.5 MW.

Background & Progress

In 2012, Power Division signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Management Environment Finance Srl, an Italian company, to set up a WTE power plant in Dhaka (Bangla Tribune 2021). The Local Government Division under the Local Government Division (LGD) under the Ministry of Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (MOLGRDCO) also signed an agreement with the company to set up a WTE power plant with capacity of 48 MW which will increase to 100 MW gradually. The project was shelved after the company declared itself bankrupt (Shitu 2017).

After failing the initiative, DNCC, DSCC, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Power Supply Company Limited (DESCO) took a plan in 2015 to form Waste Power Generation Company Limited (WPGC) to run the project (Shitu 2016). The plan was scrapped due to lack of coordination between the agencies.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities to plan a waste-to-power plant project in 2015. Following the directions, the Power Division took some initiatives to conduct a study on WTE in Bangladesh. LGRD Ministry proceeded with the initiative and formed a working group in June 2019 for formulating a guideline for a waste to power project. In July 2019, the working group submitted a report with a guideline (Hasan 2019).

According to the guideline, DNCC called an Expression of Interest (EOI) and received 17 proposals in April 2020. It shortlisted four proposals and sent them to the Local Government Division for further procedure. Finally the ministerial committee led by the Power Division selected CMEC’s proposal (Mamun 2020).

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) approved the project on 12 November 2020 under the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act 2010 bypassing the competitive process (Hasan 2021). The Power Division, DNCC and CMEC signed a tripartite agreement on 1 December 2021 to install the power plant (FE 2021).

Subsequently, BPDB signed a PPA with CMEC on 21 December 2021. According to the PPA, the sponsor will complete financial closure within nine months after signing the PPA and construction works would be completed within 24 months following the date of financial closure (TBS 2021).

Land Acquisition

DNCC is committed to provide 30 acres of land to set up a power plant and to dump the collected waste. DNCC had already acquired 80 acres of land beside the Aminbazar Sanitary Landfill at the cost of BDT 786 Crore (USD 92.5 million) (TBS 2021). But as per a report published on 4 November 2021, land acquisition process was not completed due to shortage of resources. DNCC required BDT 600 crore (USD 70.59 million when USD 1.00=BDT 85.00) but it had an allocation of only BDT 37 crore (Saadat 2021).

Finance

The estimated budget of the project is around USD 300 million (BDT 2,550 crore when USD 1.00=BDT 85.00) which would be arranged by the sponsor company. Any name of the potential External Credit Agency (ECA) finance has not been disclosed till date.

Contractors & Suppliers

CMEC is appointed as Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor of the Project. Suppliers of incineration technology and equipment are yet to be disclosed.

Fuel Supply

DNCC is responsible for supplying at least 3,000 tonnes of solid waste per day to use as fuel for the power plant. The city corporation produces 3,500 tonnes of solid waste in which only 700 tonnes are combustible (Mamun 2021). In that case, DNCC will have to pay BDT 3,000.00 (USD 35.29 when USD 1.00=BDT 85.00) per day as a penalty if it fails to supply an agreed amount of solid waste (Saadat 2021). The city corporation will not get any benefit for the solid waste, although it costs USD 20-25 per ton in many countries (Mamun 2020). However, the city corporations will receive rent for the plots from the power producers.

Power Generation

According to the PPA, the expected Commercial Operation Date (COD) of the power plant is scheduled as December 2024 (BPDB 2022). The power plant may generate 309.01 million units (gWh) of electricity annually at a rate of 83% plant load factor (PLF) if it runs on its full capacity. According to the PPA signed with CMEC, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will buy generated electricity from the power plant at a rate of USD 0.2178 (BDT 18.295 in 2021) per unit (kilowatt-hour) for 25 years from COD (Chowdhury 2020). BPDB will pay at least BDT 15,325.43 crore (USD 1.80 billion) to evacuate electricity in the period of operation (Hasan 2021).

Environment

According to Section 12 of Bangladesh Environment Protection Act 1995, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is obligatory for any industry (MOLJPA 1995). The polluting industries, such as power plants, have to go through an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) and EIA as directed in the Environmental Conservation Rules 2017 (MOEFCC 1997). But, till date, no IEE or EIA report has been conducted for the power plant.

Emission

WTE technology is Renewable but not clean. The life cycle climate change impact (LCCCI) of electricity from WTE facilities ranges from 664g to 951g per kWh (Pfadt-Trilling et al. 2021). According to the estimation, the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission from the power plant could be 205.18-293.87 kilo-tonnes per year and 5.13-7.35 million tonnes in its operation period of 25 years.

Criticism

Energy expert and former adviser to the Caretaker Government professor Mohammad Tamim mentioned the electricity from this power plant is very expensive which is totally beyond the capacity of Bangladeshi citizens. Energy activist professor Anu Muhammad criticized the ambiguous process of selecting the sponsor company (Chowdhury 2020).

According to the media report, the project was taken without carrying out any environmental and economic feasibility. The solid waste of Dhaka contains more liquid from which producing massive heat is almost impossible. The calorific value of waste might be 1000-1500 to generate electricity. But the solid waste from Dhaka contains only 600 kilocalories (Rahman 2022).

Reference

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)