Rampal Power Plant Returns to Full Capacity After 8 Days
The 1,320-megawatt Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant, also known as the Rampal Thermal Power Plant, a Bangladesh-India joint venture in Bagerhat’s Rampal, has resumed full-capacity power generation after remaining partially shut for eight days. Both units of the plant are now operational after the second unit was restarted at 12:00 noon on Sunday (September 20).
Rampal Thermal Power Plant Chief Human Resources Officer Anwarul Azim confirmed the matter, saying the second unit, which had been temporarily shut down due to a mechanical fault, was restarted at 12:00 noon on Sunday after maintenance.
Following the restart, the unit initially began generating 368.75 megawatts of electricity. Power supply to the national grid will gradually be increased according to demand. The plant currently has sufficient coal reserves for power generation.
Earlier, at around 11:30am on September 13 (Sunday), power generation from the plant’s second unit was suspended due to a mechanical fault. As a result, the plant had been operating with only one unit for the past eight days, causing its output to fall to nearly half.
According to power plant sources, the project was undertaken jointly by India and Bangladesh in 2010. In 2012, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and India’s NTPC signed an agreement, leading to the formation of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL).
The 1,320-megawatt plant was built on 1,034 acres of land in the Sapmari-Kaigordaskathi mouzas of Rampal upazila in Bagerhat at a cost of Tk 16,000 crore. After a lengthy process, the plant’s first unit began commercial operation on December 23, 2022, while the second unit started production on October 24, 2023. When both units are operational, the plant can supply between 1,100 and 1,200 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
