Matarbari Power Plant Returns to Production
After being shut down for almost a month due to a coal shortage, the Matarbari Coal-based Thermal Power Plant in Maheshkhali, Cox's Bazar, is going back into production on Saturday. Coal has been imported for electricity generation.
Earlier, this two-unit 1,200 MW power plant was completely shut down on October 31 due to coal shortage.
Power plant sources said that an Indonesian-flagged ship carrying 70,000 tonnes of coal arrived at the power plant's jetty around 10:30 am on Wednesday. After that, coal unloading activities have been going on since the afternoon of the same day. In addition, another ship from Indonesia carrying 66,000 tonnes of coal will arrive in Matarbari next Sunday.
Supervising Engineer (Operation) of the Matarbari Site Office of Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited, the power plant operator, Monowar Hossain Majumder said that after legal complications, they have reached an agreement with a joint venture called Meghna Group and Birla to import 3.5 million tonnes of coal a year to this power plant. In the meantime, ships carrying coal from Indonesia have arrived at the jetty.
As a result, the first unit of this power plant of 600 megawatts is going to be produced again from Saturday after being closed for a month. Now the electricity demand has decreased than before. However, as the demand increases, another 600 megawatts of the second unit will be produced.
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