S Alam Group’s 1,320 MW Banshkhali coal-fired power plant starts operation

S Alam Group's 1,320 MW coal-fired SS Power Plant at Banshkhali in Chattogram started commercial operation today.

The SS Power Plant started commercial generation as the 660-megawatt capacity first unit started supplying electricity to the national grid at full capacity from 12:01am today, said a press release of S Alam Group.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPBD) conducted inspections at the power plant, it noted.

The power plant, which started its official induction into the national grid on January 14, has two units, each with a capacity of 660 MW.

The first and second units began their test runs, respectively on May 24 and June 28. Now, the S Alam Group, Chinese company SEPCOIII and HTG owned SS Power Plant's one unit went into full-fledged commercial power generation.

Md Ebadat Hossain Bhuiyan, chief financial officer (CFO) of SS Power Plant, said, "With the cooperation of BPDB and all concerned, we have successfully started commercial production."

It is the country's first large private coal-based thermal electricity project.

The S Alam Group said the power plant, by far, is the highest investment from a single private entity, with an investment of $2.6 billion, or Tk 28,000 crore.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping jointly initiated the project of the SS Power Plant in 2016 after the BPDB and SS Power signed an agreement.