Oil and gas crisis, 8 power plants closed

Muhammad Jahangir Alam.

Out of 24 public and private power plants in Chittagong, 8 oil and gas dependent power plants are currently closed. Out of the 16 power plants in operation, only Shikalbaha Baraka (105 MW) is not in full production. Among them, 5 power plants are operating in nominal production.

Except for 5 units of Kaptai Jal Power Plant in Chittagong, all remaining power plants are gas and oil powered. 2 units are closed due to low water level in Kaptai Lake and mechanical failure. But at this time of oil and gas crisis, if 5 units of hydroelectric power plant were operational, 242 MW of electricity would have been produced. But now only 123 MW electricity is being produced in 3 units.

In this regard, Jasim Uddin, chief engineer of Roujan 420 MW thermal power plant, told the media that unit number 1 of Roujan thermal power plant is operational. It is producing 100 MW. Unit number 2 is closed. Shikalbaha 225 and 150 MW plants are also closed due to gas. These 4 plants run on gas, including PDB's Roujan 2 units and Shikalbaha 225 and 150 MW. Now three are closed due to gas shortage. Rouzan is now getting 30 million cubic feet of gas. Unit No. 1 is operational with these. Apart from this, out of 5 units of Kaptai, 3 are operational, 2 are closed. Dohazari, Hathazari peaking power plant is operational. However, production has decreased due to reduced oil supply.

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Meanwhile, PDB's Shikalbaha 150 MW power plant manager engineer Kamruddin Ahmed said that now due to oil and gas crisis, PDB's Shikalbaha 225 and 150 MW plants are closed. However, the private power plants are fairly operational. They have kept things running as per their contract.

Bangladesh Power Development Board Distribution Chittagong South Region has spoken to the concerned engineers, Kaptai No. 1 and No. 4 units are closed. Apart from this, 20 MW solar power plant at Teknaf and 7.5 MW solar power plant at Kaptai are also closed.

It should be noted that 1 thousand 218 megawatts have been produced from the 16 public and private power plants operating in Chittagong. -Anandbazar

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