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    • Nov 18, 2023
    • 9 min read

Rampal 1320 MW (BIFPCL) Coal Power Plant

Current Status: Operation


Rampal Coal Power Plant, also known as Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, is a supercritical power plant situated in Sapmari and Katakhali villages under Rampal Upazila in Bagerhat District of Bangladesh (Location: 22.5911, 89.5559). It is 10.5 km (aerial distance) north of Sundarbans Reserve Forest (SRF) and 32 km south of Khulna city. The power plant is sponsored by Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL), a Joint Venture Company (JVC) of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and National Thermal Power Company Limited (NTPC) of India, as a private Independent Power Producer (IPP) for 25 years. According to the latest schedule, the power plant started its commercial operation on 23 December 2022 and will phase out in October 2047.


Capacity

According to the plan, the installed (gross) and derated (net) capacity of the Power Plant is 1320 MW (660 X 2) and 1234 MW (617 X 2), respectively. It consists of two plants each with an installed capacity of 660 MW but the present capacity is 617 MW each which is 6.5% less than what it was planned to be (BPDB, 2023). So the capacity is 1320±6.5% MW.


Context

On 25 October 2009, the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) announced to build a coal power plant in Rampal in cooperation with the Government of India (GOI). Following the announcement, GOB and GOI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 11 January 2010 to construct the power plant (Hossain, 2023). Accordingly, BPDB and NTPC signed an MOU on 29 January 2012 to form a JVC to implement the project (Dutta, 2012). BIFPCL was formed on 31 Oct 2012 and was registered as a private limited company (BIFPCL, 2023). The Exim Bank of India (INEXIM) quickly approved the loan of $1.6 million USD (DO, 2017), and after taking the necessary Sovereign Guarantee, the BIFPCL declared financial closure on 2 December 2012 (BIFPCL, 2023).


After the financial closure, BPDB signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Implementation Agreement (IA) with BIFPCL on 20 April 2013 to buy electricity from the power plant for 25 years after the Commercial Operation Date (COD) (BIFPCL, 2023). BPDB and NTPC signed a supplementary joint venture agreement to add additional clauses to the earlier agreement.


On September 22, 2015, an international tender was floated for a power plant project, with Marubeni Corporation, Harbin Electric International Company Limited, and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) submitting proposals as Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractors (Rasel, 2015). BHEL, an Indian State-owned Enterprise, secured the contract for $1.49 billion USD (EP, 2017). The EPC agreement, signed on January 31, 2016, stipulated a 41-month construction timeline (BIFPCL, 2023). In May 2017, General Electric was awarded a $40 million USD contract for steam generation at the Rampal power plant (Kabir, 2020).


In 2021, sovereign guarantee in power increased to BDT 416.9 billion ($4.9 billion USD in 2021) which is 56% of the total loan taken by the State-owned Enterprises (SOE) of Bangladesh (Haroon, 2021). It is one of the projects that received a sovereign guarantee of USD 1.6 Billion on 10 April 2017 from India's Exim Bank (DO, 2017).


On August 15, 2022, a significant milestone was achieved in the India-Bangladesh Power Sector Cooperation, as Unit-I of the 2x660 MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Project was effectively integrated with the national grid, contributing 91.7 MW of electricity to the grid (FE, 2022). The power plant started its Commercial Operation on 23 December 2022 (BPDB, 2023).


The Unit- II of the Rampal Thermal Power Plant in Bagerhat, operating on coal, initiated trial power generation on 24 October 2023 which will initially produce 400 MW of electricity during the trial phase (BS, 2023).


Land Acquisition

BPDB acquired 1,834 acres for the project. A part of the land was taken from local farmers, while another part was Khas-land (state-owned land). Out of the total area, 915.5 acres are used for the first phase, with a capacity of 1320 MW (FE, 2022). Bangladesh Diesel Plant Limited (BDPL), an enterprise of the Bangladesh Army, got the contract for land development for the Power Plant.


Finance

The total budget of the power plant is USD 2.3 billion, of which 30% is contributed from equity and 70% from External Credit Agency (ECA). BPDB and NTPC invested USD 350 million each as equity investment, while INEXIM (a manufacturer in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India) provided a long-term loan of USD 1,609 million. In addition to it, BPDB took a loan from INEXIM to pay its part of the equity investment. Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) gave a guarantee of USD 45 million as the financial insurer of the project.


Sponsors

The power plant is sponsored by Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL), which is a Joint Venture Company (JVC) with an equal share of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and National Thermal Power Company Limited (NTPC) of India (FE, 2022).


Contractors

After floating an international tender on 22 September 2015, 3 companies, including Japan-based Marubeni Corporation, China-based Harbin Electric International Company Limited, and India-based Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited., submitted their proposal as Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contractor for the power plant (Rasel, 2015). Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a State-owned Enterprise (SOE) of India under the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MOHI), bagged job costs of USD 1.49 billion (EP, 2017). According to the EPC agreement signed on 31 January 2016, the power plant was to be built within 41 months of the agreement date (BIFPCL, 2023). In May 2017, the US company General Electric was awarded a contract worth $40 million to ensure steam generation at the Rampal power plant (Kabir, 2020).


BIFPCL also appointed Fichtner Consulting Engineers Limited (Fichtner) of Germany as the Owner’s Engineer for the project (Reinhardt, 2022). Afcons Infrastructure Limited (AIL) and Power Mech Projects Limited (Power Mech) were appointed as the Civil Engineering Contractors of the power plant. At the same time, the jetty and conveyor belt were constructed by Dextra Group India Limited (DGIL) and Bengal Tools EPC Limited (BTL EPC) respectively (Mia, 2022). Electrical Manufacturing Company Limited (EMC Limited) got the contract to lay off the transmission line to evacuate the generated electricity, while Dredging Corporation of India Limited (DCI) was appointed to dredge the Passur River for navigation.


Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), a State-owned Enterprise (SOE) under Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) prepared the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the project (CEGIS, 2023). It is also involved with the project as the Environmental and Social Monitoring (ESM) Consultant (CEGIS, 2023).


Coal Supply

On 22 September 2014, BIFPCL signed an agreement with Price Waterhouse Coopers India Limited (PWC India) as the consultant for long-term coal sourcing, Maritime Transportation, Transshipment, Inland Water Transport, and Logistics (New Nation, 2014).


On 2 July 2021, a consignment with 3,800 tonnes of coal was sent from Kolkata Port (India) to the Rampal Coal Power Plant (FE, 2021a). But BIFPCL authority denied the allegation and told the media that it will not use Indian coal for power generation and that the shipped amount of coal is to be used to construct one of four stockyard floors (FE, 2021b). Under an agreement signed on March 3, 2022, Bashundhara Group will supply an initial 300,000 tonnes of coal for the commissioning of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Plant in Rampal, Bagerhat (BG, 2022).


Power Generation

According to the EPC Agreement signed on 12 July 2016, the Commercial Operation Date (COD) of the power plant was 11 February 2021 for the 1st unit and 11 August 2021 for the 2nd unit. The COD was delayed several times due to the unsatisfactory performance of BHEL (Kabir 2021b). However, the schedule has been delayed to 11 December 2022 and 11 June 2023, respectively (BPDB 2022). The installation works of the plant started in April 2017 (BankTrack, 2023). BHEL was to complete the installation work of the coal-fired plant within 41 months until August 2020. However, it missed the deadline due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and extended it by one more year to August 2021 (Kabir 2021a). Currently, Unit-I is in operation with 617 MW capacity and Unit-II is in the trial phase generating 400 MW of power (BPDB, 2023; BS, 2023).


Transmission

In July 2016, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCB) undertook a project named Aminbazar-Maowa-Mongla 400KV Transmission Line Project with a budget of BDT 2505.37 crore ($317.14 million USD; when $1 USD = BDT 79) to connect Rampal Coal Power Plant with the National Load Dispatch Center (NLDC) through a 174-km long double circuit transmission line. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a non-concessional loan of BDT 1,270.69 crore (USD 160.85 million) for the project under the multi-tranche Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Program (ADB, 2014). GOB and PGCB invested BDT 897.32 crore (USD 113.58 million) and BDT 337.36 crore (USD 42.70 million), respectively, for the project (PGCB, 2022).


Environment

Coal-based power plants contribute to air and water pollution, releasing greenhouse gases and contaminants. The environmental impacts include soil contamination from ash disposal, habitat destruction due to coal mining, and health risks associated with pollutants. Transitioning to cleaner energy sources is crucial for mitigating these adverse effects. Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), a State-owned Enterprise (SOE) under Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) prepared the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the project (CEGIS, 2023). The UNESCO team mentioned the EIA report as questionable and called for shelving the project (Mahmud, 2016). The proposed area is not suitable for establishing the coal-based power plant as the Sundarbans and surrounding areas would be affected permanently by establishing the proposed coal power plant (Chowdhury, 2017).


Criticism

In July 2021, Stephan Doempke, President of World Heritage Watch, further criticized the GOB for constructing the Barisal Coal Power Plant, Payra Coal Power Plant, and Rampal Coal Power Plant, which will seriously harm the Sundarbans mangrove forest (FE 2021c).


The Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited (BIFPCL), overseeing the construction of the Rampal Power Station in Bagerhat, has formally appealed to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) for an extension of the commercial production commencement date to June 30, 2024. This request aims to prolong the previous deadline by one year, ensuring eligibility for five types of tax benefits for a duration of up to 15 years (Waliullah, 2023).


The United States is advocating for phasing out fossil fuel; on the other hand, its own company supplies boilers for a devastating coal power plant such as Rampal.


People’s Protest

Krishi Jomi Rokkha Sangram Committee (Agricultural Land Protection Struggle Committee), National Committee to Protect Oil Gas Mineral Resources Power and Ports (NCBD), and National Committee for Saving the Sundarbans (NCSS) protested hard to cancel the powerplant (NCBD, 2013).


Reference

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