Ashuganj power plant adds 420MW to nat’l grid

Commercial production of electricity has started at the Combined Cycle Power Plant in Ashuganj of Brahmanbaria.

A total of 420MW will be generated from the unit per day.

Abdul Majid, director of the project, said the new plant has been supplying 400MW to the national grid since Saturday night.

Power production from this plant started on November 15 on an experimental basis.

With this, six units of Ashuganj Power Station Company Ltd (APSCL) are currently adding 1,293MW to the national grid every day, he said.

The official also hoped that the new plant would help meet the growing demand of electricity in the country.

More power in a few days will be added to the grid from other ongoing projects, the director added.

APSCL Managing Director MM Sazzadur Rahman told The Daily Star that Ashuganj was made a "power hub" in 2009 as part of the government's master plan to produce electricity.

The authorities have started work to increase the target of power generation to 6,000MW by 2030.

As part of this, the Combined Cycle Power Plant project was approved at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on September 22, 2015. The cost of the project was estimated at $180.325 million.

According to the agreement, the Chinese contractor was supposed to complete the work in December 2020. But due to the pandemic, the project work came to a standstill. Work resumed after coronavirus situation improved.