Madhumati 100MW Power Plant is the latest addition to the generation capacity of North-West Power Generation Company Ltd. (NWPGCL), an enterprise of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
It increased the generation capacity of NWPGCL to 1,813 MW, according to the company sources.
This HFO-based power plant is located at Mollahat, Bagerhat and started the commercial operation from 17 April, 2019.
In July 2017, the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources had set a target for each of the power generation companies to construct a 100MW HFO-based power plant within 2018 to meet the demand of electricity in the pick period.
To achieve the target, the journey of Madhumati power plant was officially launched and Engr. Md. Tanbir Rahman has been nominated as the Project Director.
The site selection process was started immediately and the acquisition proposal was submitted to the DC office, Bagerhat in August, 2017.
The site was officially handed over to NWPGCL on 28 January, 2018. The EPC of the project, China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC), started land filling and land development work immediately.
In the meantime, the civil work of the 15km transmission line for the power evacuation to the Gopalganj grid substation was also started.
After soil test and design, the first pile at the project site was installed on 10 May, 2018.
Six Wärtsilä 18V50 engines arrived at site on 13 June, 2018. After the completion of the transmission line and the substation work, the back energization was done on 13 February, 2019.
After the commissioning of all the systems including engine commissioning, all the engines were synchronized to the national grid on 15 March, 2019. The power plant started its reliability run on 11 April, 2019.
After passing the reliability run and the Dependable Capacity Test, the plant started its commercial operation on 17 April, 2019 and the capacity was declared as 105MW.
While implementing the project, the project personnel had to face several challenges which eventually affected the project completion. The biggest challenge was the land acquisition and construction of the 15km transmission line within due time.
Moreover, many of the transmission line towers were in very low and water stagnant areas. Material transportation in those locations was horribly difficult.
The project also had to face several natural disasters in both China and Bangladesh. These disasters delayed several crucial shipments of materials which eventually affected the project progress severely.
Despite of several crucial issues, the Madhumati plant is the fastest among the government-owned generation companies to come into operation.
