Bangladesh, India set to hold talks on electricity swap

India and Bangladesh are set to launch two-day talks in Dhaka tomorrow to work out technical modalities for exchange of electricity in line with an MoU inked during premier Sheikh Hasina's New Delhi visit last month, officials said here today.

"This will be the second meeting of the joint steering committee for cooperation in the power sector which will focus on grid inter-connection and cooperation between our PDB (Power Development Board) and India's National Thermal Power
Cooperation (NTPC)," Bangladeshi power division spokesman Afrazur Rahman said.

The Indian delegation headed by power secretary HS Brahma would hold talks with Bangladesh officials led by his counterpart Abul Kalam Azad to finalise technical details of the power exchange, he said.

The two countries last month signed an MoU on the sidelines of the meeting between Hasina and prime minister Manmohan Singh, when New Delhi agreed to provide 250mw from its central grid in the initial stage.

Officials of the two countries earlier held two rounds of meetings in Dhaka and New Delhi ahead of the signing of the
MoU and estimated that an investment of approximately Taka 1300 crore (Rs870.6 crore) would be required for grid inter-connection.

They said Taka 1062 crore (Rs710 crore) would be required for works in Bangladesh, while an investment of Taka 240 crore
(Rs160.5 crore) would be spent in India. Power Ministry officials said that under the deal, state-run PDB could sell electricity to India when it would have surplus electricity.

"We identified at least four points for proposed inter-connection but the Iswardi-Behrampur and Asuganj-Tripura are considered to be the most viable sites for the exchange project," Azad earlier told PTI.

The Bangladeshi Power Secretary, however, said the deal would require synchronisation of the transmission systems of the two countries as Bangladeshi system is based on 232 KV AC line while the Indian system is based on 210 KV AC line.

"We will need to transform the connecting points of the two systems into high voltage DC line or (HVDC) as back-to-back link of 250mw capacity," Azad said.

Bangladesh currently faces electricity deficit of around 1500 to 1,800mw on an average against the de-rated capacity of
4500mw in 132 state-run and private units.

Officials said development of inter-connections of large electric power systems between states of a big country or between neighbouring countries is a worldwide practice as they referred to several examples of such cooperation in Africa, East Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada.

The proposed deal got a momentum as Bangladesh in September last year agreed in principle to provide access to Ashuganj river port to facilitate the transportation of the Over Dimensional Consignments (ODC) or overland transport facilities for the Palatana Power Project.