19th September 2018
Engr. Mozammel Hossain

 

 

To support the fast economic development of the country, the Government of Bangladesh since 2009 took up the challenge to reduce the electricity shortage by implementing power generation projects in public sector as well as in the private sector. Summit Group as the first and leading power generation company also implemented several such projects.

·      How did it start?

In 2017, with a view to implement about 2,600 MW of fast-track power generation projects, the Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources through its implementing agency had short listed seventeen private power generation companies on the basis of past performances. Five companies were awarded to implement power generation projects with HSD fueled within 6 months from the date of award. While, twelve companies were selected and awarded to implement projects ranging from 100MW to 300MW each with HFO fueled machines for a total capacity of 1,688 MW. Of these, Summit took the challenge of implementing a 300MW IPP project in nine months.

·      Winning the work

The projects were awarded considering the availability of lands to the project sponsors. As Summit had just started procuring land for another 149MW power plant project, we could easily purchase the required 16 acres of land adjacent to that project as those were low lying lands and were not used for agricultural cultivation or other valuable use. We also had to develop the land by filling about 6 meters on average.For implementation of such time bound fast-track project, the sponsoring company needed:

 

1.    Strong determination of the company and all its directors,

2.    Investment capability,

3.    Dedicated project implementation team, and

4.    Technical and managerial capacity of the project implementation team.

 

The key challenges to complete the project within 9-months were:

1.    Project funding as it’s a capital intensive project,

2.    Availability and procurement of project fund,

3.    Completion of civil foundation before arrival of major plant equipment,

4.    Purchase of  18 units of Engine Gen sets,

5.    Just-in-time (JIT) shipment and safe transportation of equipment to  the project site and,

6.    Managing the assembly and installation of the key equipment.

·      The Challenge

This project’s implementation period was not similar to any other IPP project implemented earlier in Bangladesh. The project was implemented by doing all activities of a green field project. The countdown of the 9-months implementation period started from the day of issuance of the letter of intent (LOI). The LOI was issued on August 10, 2017 and the project agreements that is the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with BPDB and the Implementation Agreement (IA) with Power Division were executed on December 10, 2017. But following the Letter of Intent (LOI) stated, the target date of achieving the COD was set as May 10, 2018. We had to carry out all the activities below with great determination in order to complete the project within the tight deadline:

 

1.    Land:

·         Purchasing project land

·         Land development

 

2.    Project planning:

·         Preparing design drawings of civil, electrical and mechanical works

 

3.    Procurement:

·         Drafting Request for Proposal(RFP) documents for the procurement of different equipment and materials required to be imported from international manufacturers and local sources

·         Processing of procurement via competitive offers from reputed manufacturers

·         Awardingcontracts to respective vendors

 

4.    Vendor management:

·         Follow-up manufacturing of ordered plant materials and ensured quality checks and on time delivery

 

5.    Shipment and installation:

·         Monitoring safe delivery of equipment from the factories, arranged shipment leading up to inland transportation to project site

·         Ensure safe unloading of heavy machineries on foundation pads at site

·         Engineering of erection and installation of the plant machineries

·         Electrical engineering works for installation of control and protection system

 

6.    Construction of sub-station and one kilometer 230 KV double circuit transmission line for power evacuation to the National Grid

 

7.    Government permission:

·         Managing pre-commissioning and performance tests of the plant

·         Coordinating with government officials to obtain commercial operation date on schedule

 

·      Preparing the Land

The foundation works for the equipment especiallyfor heavy engines were very challenging as the sub-soil conditions of the site were not optimal. We had to insert 26 to 30 meter long cast with 500mm diameter cast in Situ piles in all the foundations. For engine hall foundations, we had driven 562 piles.

Another major challenge of the project was construction of Power Evacuation Facility in parallel with the construction of the power plant.As per system requirement, the Power Evacuation Facility of this 300 MW plant was set at 230 KV that would connect to Tongi 230 KV and Kaliakoir 400/230 KV sub-stations by making IN and Out of the existing Kaliakoir - Tongi  230 KV line.To accomplish this, we had to construct the outdoor 230 KV sub-station comprising six units of 11/245 KV transformer bay, one tie bay, two units line with bus coupler bay and thirty-sixunits of 11kv switch gear panels. With constant monitoring of manufacturing activities in the foreign factories and following up for timely delivery, we were successful in making the sub-station ready before beginning operations of the power plant.

 

·      Utilizing Turag River

The project site is located at Kodda under the Gazipur district by the tributary of river Turag. The river tributarywas not navigable for transportation of heavy cargo materials throughout the year. During dry season between December and March the river depth becomes insufficient to transport river crafts over 2-meter draft.  In rainy season, there remains another limitation of low clearance under the AshuliaRoad Bridge(ofmaximum 5 meters).

 

In order to transport these heavy materialssafely we had selected first week of November until mid-January as the best time to transport from the Mongla seaport up to Koddaproject site. We were very lucky and successful in getting all the heavy equipment and materials delivered from the factory abroad in time and reach Mongla port at the right time. Though the devastating flood in August 2017 in Kodda was the worst affected among all Upazillas in Gazipur. The roads leading up the plant was inundated by flood water.

 

Once the equipment reached the plant, yet another critical challenge was unloading of the cargos specially lifting the eighteen 18V46 HFO fueled Wartsila engines each weighing 300 tons from barges on to the river bank then after unloading, transporting those to respective foundation pads in the engine halls. This was done using 600 ton crawler crane and special low bed trailer.

 

With blessings of Almighty, no accident or damage occurred in transportation of equipment and materials. Using proper crane reduced time for transportation. The approach road from the nearby Gazipur-Tangail highway was very narrow and not suitable for moving road trucks having 7 ton materials. So all the major equipment and materials had to transport by river barges.

 

·      Partnering with Wärtsilä

Considering the previous performance, we had selected 18V 46 engines of Wärtsilä, Italy make and AMG 1600 type alternators from ABB, Finland make. Most of Balance of Plant (BOP) Materials including the Fuel Treatment Plant (FTP), AMG 1600SS 12 DSE, Lube Oil Treatment and exhaust gas boilers and engine auxiliary modules were sourced from Europe.

 

·      Transmitting the Power

Construction of about one km of 230 KV double circuit inter connection line was another big challenge. Procuring four heavy towers and other line materials was difficult because no factory was interested to manufacture such small quantity of transmission line materials and delivery it within 4-5 months. Without purchasing the materials, construction of foundation in the submerged line route land was arduous. We had to make special efforts to make the foundation within the critically short time.

 

·      And at last everything came together …

On completing installation with the support of commissioning team from Wärtsilä and hard work of Summit’s project team we had successfully completed the required 100 hours Reliability Run Test (RRT) by the evening of 9th May 2018. The PDB commissioning team had also witnessed the 6 hours Dependable Capacity Tests during performance of RRT. After obtaining the successful performance of the RRT, BPDB has declared officially the commencement of Commercial Operation Date (COD) of the plant from the zero hundred hours of 10th May 2018 which was within the contractual schedule. From then on, the plant is running in full operation as per system demand of BPDB. Due to location of the plant in a load centre area and comparatively more efficient plant in respect of fuel consumption, the plant is almost running at full capacity since beginning of commercial operation.

 

The implementation of a power plant project for capacity of 300MW in 9 months is a miraculous achievement performed by the Summit’s project team. As have been found, this project is recorded as the fastest implemented project in the history of power plant construction in Bangladesh and in the world.

 

Engr. Mozammel Hossain;

Managing Director of Summit Gazipur I & II Power Limited &

 Deputy Managing Director of Summit Power Limited (SPL).

  


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