Bangladesh Orders Second Major CCGT Plant

A consortium of Dutch-registered GE Capital Global Energy Investment and Strategic Finance and local Unique Hotel & Resorts, both of Bangladesh, agreed with government entities July 24 to build a $520mn, 584-MW combined-cycle power plant at Meghnaghat. GE will provide the engineering, procurement and construction services and build it on a turnkey basis for $350mn, using its 9HA turbine.

The consortium, Unique Meghnaghat Power (UMPL), will bring the power plant online within 36 months and run it on either locally produced natural gas or re-gasified LNG (RLNG). Unique Hotel & Resorts has 64.98%, GE has 30% and Strategic Finance has 4.95% of the consortium.

State-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will pay around $0.0369/kWh for power produced by local gas, or $0.068/kWh if it is produced by burning regasified LNG. In either case the gas will be supplied by state-run Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company.

The government picked the consortium under the 'Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act 2010' bypassing the usual tendering process. It is however, the second such deal involving a similar type of power plant in the same location.

A consortium of local Summit and US GE inked deals with government entities in March this year to build a 583-MW combined-cycle power plant.