Bangladesh's leading privately held electricity provider, the Summit Group of Companies, plans to build a power plant in Bhutan, Chairman Muhammad Aziz Khan said on Sunday. "At the moment we are surveying to identify the bottlenecks and potentials to set up a power plant in Bhutan with 500 megawatts capacity," Khan told Reuters in an interview.
He said that Bhutan was a potentially rich source of hydro power and added: "If we could reap the potentials, then Bangladesh would be able to meet up its much needed electricity requirements."
Summit plans to produce an additional 750 megawatts of electricity with imported liquefied natural gas over the next three to four years, and produce another 676 megawatts (MW) of electricity by the year 2014.
"We have already signed a deal with Chinese firm First Northeast Electric Power Engineering Company (NEPC) on Engineering, Procurement & Construction for about $220 million for implementation of the Bibiyana 341 MW combined cycle power project," Khan said.
The Bibiyana combined cycle power project will generate 341 MW of electricity by June 2014 at the lowest tariff of 1.90 taka per KW hour, Khan said.