The power plant will be located at Meghnaghat, near Dhaka. The announcement follows the 22-year power purchase agreement (PPA) signed between Summit Meghnaghat II Power Company (SMIIPCL), a subsidiary of Summit Group, and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
The gas-fired power plant is expected to begin operations by 2022 and will generate enough electricity to be supplied to 700,000 homes in the country.
For the project, SMIIPCL has also signed several other agreements with the Government of Bangladesh, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company.
Summit Group founder chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan said: “The phenomenal growth of Bangladesh in the last decade has established Bangladesh as a role model. Summit is proud to have played a role in it. With today’s 583 MW project, Summit embarks upon investing four billion dollars in the next five years to help eradicate poverty, create employment and support Bangladesh to achieve SDGs.”
Summit selected GE Power to provide equipment and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) for the project back in 2017 and the services agreement was signed last year. The two agreements are worth $390m.
As per the agreements, GE Power will provide the turnkey solution for the power project and will handle the facility’s design, supply and installation of the equipment and commissioning works.
For this project, General Electric will supply one of its 9HA.01 gas turbine, one heat recovery stream generator (HRSG), one steam turbine generator, condenser and associated systems, as well as balance of plant (BOP) solutions.
Additionally, GE’s services will include maintenance and repairs of the power generation equipment at the facility for 20 years, to help sustain efficiency, reliability, performance and availability of the plant.
GE South Asia gas power systems CEO Deepesh Nanda said: “Bangladesh’s power sector is undergoing a transformational shift as the Government takes conducive policy decisions and actions to meet the targeted 40 GW of installed power capacity by 2030.
“GE’s long-term association with Summit is a testimony to our efforts to support this transformation by introducing advanced, innovative solutions into Bangladesh’s energy ecosystem. This will contribute towards providing uninterrupted access to electricity to all, benefiting households, businesses and industries across the country.”