RPower to invest $3 bn in Bangladesh power plant

Reliance Power will set up a 2 million tonnes a year floating LNG import terminal as well as 3,000 megawatt power plant.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power on Saturday signed an agreement to invest $ 3 billion in setting up a mega power plant and a floating LNG import terminal in Bangladesh which faces acute power shortages.

Reliance Power will set up a 2 million tonnes a year floating LNG import terminal as well as 3,000 megawatt power plant, according to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Sameer Gupta, Executive vice-president of Reliance Power, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ two-day visit in Dhaka.

The company will use the equipment it had contracted for its Samalkot project in Andhra Pradesh for setting up the power plant in Bangladesh in three years from the date of signing power purchase agreement (PPA).

The equipment will be under appropriate warranties from General Electric (GE), USA and the other global suppliers, the company said in a statement.

Reliance Power was implementing a 2,400 MW gas based power project at Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh. The project was to be allocated gas from Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 block but due to the drastic decline in production, the project has not got any gas so far.

The equipment for the project has been procured and is ready with the company. Use of these brand new equipments will put the implementation of Bangladesh project on fast track.

“Reliance is proposing to utilize these brand new equipment from Samalkot project, including advanced class 9FA machines supplied by GE, for the proposed project at Bangladesh, under appropriate warranties from GE and the other equipment suppliers. This will help set up the project on a fast-track basis,” it said.

The company in the statement said it will invest $3 billion in an integrated facility comprising of 3,000 MW of LNG based combined cycle power plant and LNG Terminal with a Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit (FSRU).

This will be the largest foreign investment in Bangladesh which faces acute power shortages.

The project will be developed in phases. The first phase is expected to be completed within 3 years of signing of PPA and securing all approvals and financing.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) shall provide land for the power project at appropriate locations.

The FSRU terminal shall be set up at Maheshkhali Island in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.

“The project can be set up quickly and can power the country’s rising demand for electricity and will provide clean and green power,” the statement said.

The project is in line with the Master Plan of 2010 for Bangladesh, under which BPDB envisages to develop a 3,000 MW LNG based power project so as to meet the growing power demand and supplement the domestic gas reserves in the country.