Wind power feeds national grid for first time Friday

The wind power plant in Khurushkul of Cox's Bazar is all set to add 30 megawatts of electricity to the national grid on a trial basis on Friday, prime minister's Energy Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury confirmed on Wednesday.

The energy adviser visited the privately-owned plant on the day and announced that it would roll into full capacity of 60 megawatts per second towards the end of the year.

The power plant would boost business prospects in the tourist hub while helping realise the government's goal of increasing renewable energy sources.

US-DK Green Energy (BD) Ltd is implementing the project with Chinese investment at an estimated cost of $120 million and the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board would pay $120 for every megawatt generated per hour, according to the company's website. Construction of the project started in March last year.

US-DK Green Energy's Managing Director Zahirul Islam Khan said 10 of the total 22 wind turbines have already been installed, where a single turbine would generate 3 megawatts of electricity. Twenty turbines would help reach full capacity and the two other turbines would provide support in case of emergencies. The turbines have been installed atop 110-metre-high towers.

Zahirul claims a proposal has already been sent to the power ministry to double the wind power plant's capacity to 120 megawatts per second with 20 new turbines.

Around three metres per second of wind flow is required to generate the minimum electricity for making a wind power plant commercially viable. The location of the Cox's Bazar plant gets around 5.5 metres per second of wind flow, making the project a potential success.

Cox's Bazar Chamber of Commerce and Industries President Abu Morshed Chowdhury said the district is a tourist hub building on its long sea beach. A new power plant in the district is naturally raising hopes among its business entities as well as general people.

A Cox's Bazar citizen activist told TBS that the district is plagued with "various electricity problems" and a wind power plant would certainly help ease the crisis.

wind energy / power