Process of transmitting power to Bangladesh at final stage

Agartala:The process of transmitting power to Bangladesh from Tripura grid has almost reached the final stage and hopefully, the power trading will begin from January next year, Power Secretary S K Rakesh said here on Tuesday.
He said the final recommendation of the committee was for power trading with Bangladesh from Tripura. It has been submitted to the Ministry of Power followed by a meeting at Delhi on September 8.
The recommendation included technical issues like grid synchronisation in both the countries and per unit cost of power to be sold to Bangladesh. After getting approval of the ministry both countries will sit for finalization of the deal. Expectedly by December the transmission line between Suryamaninagar (Agartala) and South Comilla grid (Bangladesh) will be connected, Rakesh stated.
Bangladesh is planning to disconnect Comilla and other southern parts of the country from their national grid and to connect it with Tripura. As a result, the entire southern region will get direct electricity from Tripura grid at consumer level.
“The direct connectivity between two grids will reduce transmission loss as well as help the country establish alternative power supply system as Indian grid code. Now 500 MW power is fed to Bangladesh national grid from West Bengal, which may be enhanced further to 1000 MW after discussion at highest level,” he stated.
However, the administration indicated that Tripura is trying to sell 50 MW more in addition to 100 MW to Bangladesh, as 101 MW capacity Monarchak gas based plant is ready to generate power. With new addition, the total generation will cross 450 MW in Tripura against it’s demand of 265 MW.
“The cost escalation of Monarchak has increased the cost of per unit power to Rs 11, as had been estimated at initial level. Now Tripura has been pursuing with Delhi to provide cost subsidy on Monarchak power at least for 3 years to increase it’s consumption,” sources said. (UNI)