THE use of coal having calorific values lower than what are stipulated or designed in producing power by independent coal-fired plants has greatly hampered power generation, adding to the cost, draining the national exchequer, harming the environment and burdening consumers by way of increased tariff. Controversial power purchase agreements coupled with the oversight failure of government authorities have given the power producers free rein to unfairly influence their fuel cost. Plant owners import fuel on their own and leave the Power Development Board with no option to ask about the source of the coal imported, allowing the plants to charge the government at will with invoices that are often believed manufactured. Experts believe that private coal import has also offered the scope for under- and over-invoicing as the coal import takes place at the hands of the companies that run the plants. Experts, therefore, believe that the plants have held people hostage and see no way out from the situation unless the government sets the price of coal, the cost of its transport and the calorific values of coal. Power Development Board estimates show that the fuel cost that Adani Power charge could be lowered by a third by not dishing out the privileges it has so far been given for fuel import.
The 1.6GW Adani plant at Godda in India is designed to burn coal with calorific values in the ranges of 3,500鈥�5,000 kilocalories a kilogram whilst the power agreement has allowed Adani to charge for coal having the calorific value of 6,322kcal/kg and the Power Development Board cannot ask anything about the source of the coal imported as the agreement has no such provision. The 1.3GW Rampal thermal power plant, which the joint venture Bangladesh India Friendship Company owns, is designed to handle coal having calorific values in the ranges of 5,500鈥�5,800kcal/kg whilst plant authorities claim that they use coal having calorific values in the ranges of 5,300鈥�6,100 kcal/kg. But documents say, as 抖阴精品 reported on October 4, that the plant imported coal having the calorific value of 5,036 kcal/kg in May and there are instances of even coal with lower calorific values having been imported. The cost of the fuel that the Rampal plant uses is about 30 per cent costlier than the cost of the fuel that the 1.2GW Matarbari plant uses. The freight charge that the Rampal plant shows, as power board officials say, is also very high. A high fuel cost also implies lack of plant efficiency, suggesting the waste of fuel. Coal with high calorific value generates more energy and a low consumption of fuel in the combustion process.
The government is learnt to have set up a committee to evaluate the power purchase agreements signed during the 15 years of the Awami League government, toppled on August 5, under the shield of an indemnity law. The government should repeal the indemnity law and hold the people responsible for such a chaotic energy situation to account. But it should first urgently attend to the issues of the use of coal and its import for power plants.
