Operation of another unit of 1,320 MW coal-fired Payra power plant is going to be suspended soon due to coal shortage, according to Bangladesh-China Power Company (Pvt.) Limited (BCPCL) officials. The plant has two units each having 660 MW and the first unit of the two has already been shut following the coal crisis. "Now the remaining unit may run until June 2", said Shah Abdul Moula, plant manager of the BCPCL. BCPCL, a joint venture of the Chinese firm China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) and Bangladeshi state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (NWPGCL), is the owner and operator of the Payra power plant. Read more: IPPs call for uniform import duty on primary fuels The plant manager said that the plant is currently operating one unit having 660 MW while another 660 MW unit was closed last week. Moula said that the overdue payment against the coal import actually created this critical situation. The overdue amount now stands at more than $400 million. "But recently we received a permission from Bangladesh Bank to pay $50 million to the coal supplier against the overdue", he said adding that this will help arrange to resume coal import. Read more: Separate entity needed to deal with matters relating to coal: Energy experts But still it will take about a month to receive the coal supply and we hope we may not get before June 28, said another official of the BCPCL.  According to official sources, the Payra power plant needs to import 3 lakh metric tonnes of coal every month to operate the plant in full swing. They said the BCPCL normally opens LC through state-owned Sonali Bank to import the coal. But recently Sonali Bank regretted opening the LC due to the dollar crisis. Admitting about the problems, the BCPCL officials said the authority has already communicated the issue to the Power Division to take necessary measures. Read more: Committee to review existing deals on coal purchase for power generation Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on March 21 last year inaugurated the 1320 MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant at Patuakhali's Payra on a day when she also declared the country's 100 percent electricity coverage. This milestone achievement puts Bangladesh ahead of India and Pakistan among the South Asian nations to light up every house with electricity. BCPCL set up the plant using Ultra Supercritical Technology at over $2 billion as part of a development partnership on 982.77 acres of land. The Export-Import Bank of China lent $1.96 billion for the project. The company started operation in 2016. Read more: Bashundhara Group wins bid to supply 8 million MT of coal to Rampal power plant This kind of coal-fired power plant using Ultra Supercritical Technology is the thirteenth in the world and seventh in South Asia. The Ultra Supercritical Technology used for this plant aims at protecting the environment in line with the government's policy, officials said. After undergoing test runs for about five months, the first unit of the Payra power plant started commercial operation in May, 2020. In October, 2020, the second unit of the 660 MW plant, a joint venture of Bangladesh and China, started its commercial operation. The Payra and another 1320 MW Rampal power plants have been implemented targeting the power evacuation from both the two plants and transmit power to Dhaka city and adjoining areas to meet growing power demand. Read more: Illegal coal furnaces leave Khulna gasping for breath & answers The Payra power plant is burning some 13,000 tonnes of coal a day. It has a 76.30 acre dumping zone where 25 years’ worth of by-product can be kept. The plant is currently importing coal from Indonesia. It has its own jetty whose conveyor belts can unload 3,200 tonnes of coal every hour from four vessels at the same time. Bangladesh's power generation capacity reached 25,514 MW from just 3200MW in 2009, according to the data.

Unit-1 of the 1329MW Rampal Coal-fired power plant will resume production from Wednesday (February 15, 2023), still under a test run that started in August before being discontinued last month. According to official sources, Unit-1, having 660 MW capacity, was forced to shut down on January 14 due to shortage of coal supply. The authorities of the power plant were unable to open any letter of credit (LC) to import coal due to the dollar crisis. Read More: Bashundhara Group wins bid to supply 8 million MT of coal to Rampal power plant After a lot of persuasion at the government’s policy level, LC-opening was allowed for importing coal and the supplier sent a consignment of 30,000 metric tons. “The imported coal reached the jetty of the power plant on February 9 and now we are set to resume operation at the unit-1 of the plant from Wednesday,” said Anwarul Azim, deputy general manager of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) told UNB. The BIFPCL, a joint venture of Indian state-owned NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), is the owner and operator of the Rampal power plant. Read More: Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant in Rampal a concrete manifestation of India-Bangladesh friendship: Pranay Verma The official said another that another consignment of 50,000 MT of coal is also coming to the country soon. He also informed that the plant’s unit-2 is expected to come into operation in June this year. Sources said though the unit-1 is now under test run as the BPDB which has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the BIFPCL has not given the go-ahead yet for start of the commercial operation of the plant. Meanwhile, BIFPCL officials said that State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid is expected to visit the plant on Thursday. Read More: Stolen device worth Tk 47 lakh of Rampal Power Plant recovered in Bagerhat; 4 arrested

UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change Ian Fry has said the major greenhouse emitting countries have a clear obligation under international law to provide funding to help highly vulnerable countries like Bangladesh to recover from the impacts of climate change."Bangladesh should not have to carry the burden of climate change alone," the UN expert said on Thursday, calling for an international fund to help the South Asian country to recover from the impacts of extreme weather events.He visited some of the most adversely affected regions of Bangladesh and said it is clear to him that the burden of climate change should not be carried by Bangladesh alone. Read What can COP27 do for climate vulnerable countries?“For too long, major emitting countries have denied their responsibility for the suffering they are causing. This must end," said the UN Special Rapporteur.In a statement at the end of his 10-day visit to Bangladesh to study the impact of climate change in the South Asian nation, Fry said the international community must immediately establish a loss and damage fund to finance the recovery of climate change-affected States. Fry said women carried an enormous burden of climate change impacts, walking long distances to fetch fresh water, which put them at risk of sexual harassment and kept them from childcare and farming. Read Aid pours into Pakistan; deaths from floods cross 1,200 markAccording to the Special Rapporteur, women lost livestock, crops and stored seeds in the flash floods of Sylhet, in northeast Bangladesh, and it would take the community at least two years to fully recover.During his visit, the UN expert held meetings online with indigenous peoples who expressed grave concerns about their future, as the logging of their land was destroying traditional livelihoods and making it harder to find freshwater, food and medicine.The logging was a violation of the Bangladesh government’s own programme to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), the Special Rapporteur said. Read: UN human rights expert on climate change to visit Bangladesh from Sept 4-15 The government refuses to recognise that these communities are indigenous, and their plight was therefore being ignored, he said.“The issue of climate change displacement was deeply disturbing for me. Millions of people suffering from hardship caused by climate change are migrating to cities to seek other opportunities,” the expert said.“Inevitably these people end up in the slum areas of the major cities, where their basic rights are being denied,” he said. Read Dangerous heat predicted to hit 3 times more often in futureThe Special Rapporteur said he had received reports that the situation of children in urban slums was particularly dire.“They suffer high rates of malnourishment, school drop-out, child marriage, child labour and abuse,” he said.Fry said he also met with climate change activists who claimed they were being persecuted by the government for protesting against new coal-fired power plants. Read Northeastern farmers face new challenges with severe drought“The government appears to be using the Digital Protection Act to suppress the voice of climate activists. This is a gross overreaction. People have the right to express their views without being referred to as ‘terrorists’, the UN expert said.Fry will present a report to the UN General Assembly in 2022, focused on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change mitigation, loss, damage and participation – an issue he said was brought sharply into focus during his visit to Bangladesh.A full report on his visit to Bangladesh will be presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2023. Read Climate change wipes out $525 bn over last 2 decades: Report

The last bits of ash and greenhouse gases from Hawaii’s only remaining coal-fired power plant slipped into the environment this week when the state’s dirtiest source of electricity burned its final pieces of fuel. The last coal shipment arrived in the islands at the end of July, and the AES Corporation coal plant closed Thursday after 30 years in operation. The facility produced up to one-fifth of the electricity on Oahu — the most populous island in a state of nearly 1.5 million people. “It really is about reducing greenhouse gases,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And this coal facility is one of the largest emitters. Taking it offline means that we'll stop the 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases that were emitted annually.” Also read: China promotes coal in setback for efforts to cut emissions Like other Pacific islands, the Hawaiian chain has suffered the cascading impacts of climate change. The state is experiencing the destruction of coral reefs from bleaching associated with increased ocean temperatures, rapid sea level rise, more intense storms and drought that is increasing the state's wildfire risk.   In 2020, Hawaii’s Legislature passed a law banning the use of coal for energy production at the start of 2023. Hawaii has mandated a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045, and was the first state to set such a goal. But critics say that while ending the state's dirtiest source of energy is ultimately a good move, doing so now is not. Renewable sources meant to replace coal energy are not yet on line because of permitting delays, contract issues and pandemic-related supply-chain problems. So the state will instead burn more costly oil that is only slightly less polluting than coal. “If you are a believer that climate change is going to end because we shut down this coal plant, this is a great day for you," said Democratic state Sen. Glenn Wakai, chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Technology. “But if you pay an electricity bill, this is a disastrous day for you.” Also read: Climate consensus appears near; India objects to coal plans The end of coal and the additional cost of oil will translate to an increase in electricity bills for consumers who already face the nation's highest energy and living costs. Hawaiian Electric Company had projected ratepayers would see a 7% spike in their bills, but Thursday revised that to 4% because of a drop in oil prices. “What we’re doing ... is transitioning from the cheapest fossil fuel to the most expensive fossil fuel,” Wakai said. "And we’re going to be subjected to geopolitical issues on pricing for oil as well as access to oil. ” The AES coal plant closure means Hawaii joins 10 other states with no major coal-fired power facilities, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit advocating for a global transition to clean energy. Rhode Island and Vermont never had any coal-fired power plants. While Hawaii is the first state to fully implement a ban on coal, a handful of others previously passed laws. The 2015 law in Oregon, the first state to pass a ban, isn't effective until 2035. Washington state's 2020 coal ban starts in 2025. California, Maine and Texas are among states that have restricted construction of new coal-fired plants. The number of coal-burning units in the United States peaked in 2001 at about 1,100. More than half have stopped operating since then, with most switching to more cost-effective natural gas.   U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows oil generated about two-thirds of Hawaii's electricity in 2021. That makes Hawaii the most petroleum-dependent state, even as it tries to make a rapid transition to renewables. Hawaii already gets about 40% of its power from sustainable sources including wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal. State Sen. Kurt Fevella, a Republican and the Senate Minority Leader, suggested that Hawaiian Electric Company and other energy corporations should absorb the additional cost of shifting to renewables. “The fact that Hawaii’s families are already doing what is necessary to reduce their energy uses while still paying the most in the nation for household electricity is unsustainable,” said Fevella. “While I believe utility companies like HECO can do more to reduce the energy burden passed on to Hawaii’s ratepayers, I also believe developers of renewal energy projects should also bear a greater portion of the transmission costs." Hawaiian Electric Company, the primary distributor of electricity for the state, said it can do little to change the prices to consumers. “We’re a regulated monopoly,” said Vice President of Government and Community Relations and Corporate Communications Jim Kelly. ”So we don’t set the prices. We don’t make any money on the fuels that we use to generate electricity.” AES, the operator of Hawaii's last coal plant, has transitioned to creating clean energy and is working on large solar farms across the state, including one in West Oahu that will replace some lost coal energy when completed next year. “Renewables are getting cheaper by the day," said Leonardo Moreno, president of AES Corporation's clean energy division. “I envision a future where energy is very, very cheap, abundant and renewable." Sustainable energy experts say getting rid of coal is critical in curbing climate change. While the current renewable landscape is not perfect, they say technologies are improving. “This is the decade of climate action that we really need to be moving on right now,” said Makena Coffman, University of Hawaii professor and director for the Institute for Sustainability and Resilience. “And so these are available technologies and they might get incrementally better, but let’s not wait 10 years to do it.” Profits from the increased electricity costs to Hawaii consumers will go mostly to overseas oil producers, said Hawaii's Chief Energy Officer Scott Glenn. Hawaii’s petroleum is distributed by Par Pacific, a Houston-based company which has traditionally sourced the state's oil from Libya and Russia. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Hawaii halted oil shipments from Russia and replaced it with products from Argentina. Extending the coal plant's operation would be complicated and costly, Glenn said, noting that the plant has been planning decommissioning for years and would now have to buy coal at market price. “Coal is going up. It’s getting more expensive,” he said of the supply Hawaii gets from clearcut rainforests in Indonesia. "If we were using U.S. coal, it would not be the cheapest energy source on the grid.” Why would Hawaii, a small U.S. state in the middle of the Pacific, try to lead the way in moving to sustainable energy? “We are already feeling the effects of climate change,'" Glenn said. “It’s not fair or right to ask other nations or states to act on our behalf if we are not willing and able to do it ourselves. If we don’t, we drown.”

The first unit of the Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant will go into commercial operation early October in a major stride in growing Bangladesh-India power sector cooperation, officials said. The unit-I of the 1320 (2x660) MW coal-fired power plant was successfully synchronized with the national grid on August 15. After completion and “successful synchronization” of unit-I of the power plant, further synchronization related activities are currently being undertaken following which Unit-I will be handed over to the government of Bangladesh, said the officials involved in the project. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are expected to jointly announce the completion of first unit’s construction during her visit to India first week of next month.

Bangladesh hopes to get electricity from the 1600 MW coal-fired power plant in the Indian state of Jharkhand from November this year after about a year of delay, according to officials at Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB). The import of the electricity was scheduled to begin in in January this year, officials at the company confirmed. But the slow progress in both power plant construction and transmission line installation forced the authorities in Bangladesh and India to revise the commercial operation date (COD) and set a new schedule for August this year. Read:Subsidy on gas and electricity should end in phases, PM tells an Ecnec meeting But now the project may take further time to be completed, said the officials of the PGCB which was responsible to build the transmission line for evacuation of power from India. Golam Kibria, managing director of the PGCB, acknowledged the delay. “We hope that the transmission line will now be ready by October-November this year to get supply from the project”, he told UNB this week.   He noted that the transformers of the project were supposed to come from China a few months back. “But factory closure in China for Covid-19 situation delayed the supply,” he said. “The pandemic has forced us to set a new COD”, a senior official working at Adani Group’s Dhaka Office confirmed to UNB. Currently, Bangladesh imports a total of 1160 MW power from India, of which 1000 MW is coming from West Bengal and 160 MW from Tripura. Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Adani Group during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka in June 2015 to import 1600 MW power from Jharkhand. After a long negotiation, the two sides signed two final deals—power purchase agreement (PPA) and implementation agreement (IA)—in November 2017. As per the deals, Adani will set up the 1600 MW coal-fired power plant in Godda, Jharkhand of which the first unit will start commercial operation within 44 months and the second unit within 50 months. Bangladesh will import electricity from the plant over a period of 25 years at a tariff of 8.612 US cents (Tk 6.890) per unit. A Power Division document reveals that Bangladesh will pay about $23.87 billion, equivalent to Tk 1,909,75.607 crore, over the next 25 years to the Indian Adani Group to purchase the electricity from the plant. As per the deadline set in the agreement, official sources said the Adani Group’s both the units were supposed to start commercial operation in 2020. But the Covid-19 situation forced the rescheduling of the deadline.     After missing the deadline of construction, the Adani Group was trying tGovt aims for 10% electricity from renewables by 2025o start the operation of its 800 MW first unit on December 16 in 2021, as part of the commemoration of the Bangladesh’s Victory Day, said an official of the Indian conglomerate who cannot be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media. Read: “But the initiative was not successful because of the failure on both the sides—Adani Group and BPDB”, said the top official adding that neither the transmission line nor the plant was ready. The PGCB took up the project to build a 28-km 400 kV Rahanpur-Monakasha double circuit transmission line at a cost of Tk 225.49 crore to evacuate from the power plant at Bangladesh border point. Indian company Transrail Lighting Limited was appointed as contractor for the project. As per the annual report of the PGCB, the project achieved Cumulative Physical progress of 91 and financial 87.57 up December 2021. PGCB official document said the project will facilitate supply of imported power from India to Bangladesh national grid and to meet the growing power demand in Rajshahi and Rangpur regions, the agricultural economic centre of the country, and capital Dhaka. Adani Group officials said the company has to build a 100 km transmission line on the Indian side to reach electricity from the plant to the Bangladesh border.