Energy Industry News Uncategorized

Powertek of Malaysia may Build Bangladesh Sirajganj 450MW Power Project

Dhaka, Bangladesh | September 22, 2008 by D-8 Secretariat

The Bangladeshi government appears to go for re-tendering for setting up the proposed 450 MW Bibiyana power plant due to poor response from the pre-qualified bidders.

Among the three qualified bidders, only the Malaysia-based Powertek Berhad has shown her solid interest to submit the final bid for the large power project, according to highly placed sources in the Ministry of Power.

Powertek has already purchased the request for proposal (RFP) document to submit the final technical and financial offer at the end of the current month, said a top official at the Power Cell. But the two other qualified bidders - AES Corporation of USA and the KEPCO of South Korea - have already verbally informed that they would not vie for the final competition to obtain the project.

Power Cell Director General Abdul Jalil, however, said the government is yet to take any firm decision on the Sirajganj project. "We'll sit with the Power Ministry soon to discuss the matter and then a final decision would be taken on the project," he told UNB.

The government has been in a great dilemma over the implementation of large power projects although the country has been suffering from a nagging power crisis. So far, the present caretaker government has invited tenders for two large projects -Bibiyana and Sirajganj power projects. But poor response from expected bidders is likely to jeopardise the government move to resolve the power crisis.

The interest showing by foreign companies for the last two years to participate in power plant tenders is very discouraging.

After assuming office, the present caretaker government first invited tender for the 450 MW Bibiyana project in which, among three qualified bidders, only one bidder participated in the bid.

Now the government is examining weather there is any problem if it moves forward with the single bid because normally when a single bid is received in any government tender, it goes for re-tender for the sake of proper competition and transparency.

The similar case is happening to the Sirajganj project, as only a single bidder -Powertek who came out to be a responsive bidder in Bibiyana project is now interested to participate in the Sirajganj project.

If the government allows Powertek to participate as lone bidder for both the projects, then it would be only private company to have control over generation of 900 MW of power single handedly.

It was designed that the private sponsor will set up both the Bibiyana projects as independent power producer (IPP) plants on build-own-operate basis.
The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity for the next 22 years with foreign currencies.

This potential cooperation of Bangladesh and Malaysia is definitely a good example that go in line with one of the topics discussed in previous D-8 4th Working Group in Energy in Cairo, where memberstates and their private sectors were called upon to develop deeper ties in energy sector.

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