The country’s largest state-owned gas-fired power plant is the Ghorashal Thermal Power Station in Narsingdi. With a 1,300 MW capacity, the plant has been sitting idle day after day due to gas shortage. Although the plant has been upgraded and its capacity increased, it still cannot operate due to lack of gas. As a result, Ghorashal—known as the “power hub” of the country—is experiencing a kind of paralysis.

According to sources at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the Ghorashal plant has seven gas-fired units of varying capacities. Over the past few years, modernization efforts have increased its production capability. This plant is more cost-efficient than other gas-based plants in the country. Currently, around 700 MW of capacity is ready for production. But even that cannot be utilized because of the gas shortage. Repair work is ongoing to make the remaining capacity operational.

Gas for the Ghorashal plant is supplied by Petrobangla. According to their gas-supply reports, the plant has not run for a single day in July. It operated for only four days in June and was shut down again on June 5. As of Wednesday (July 9), it still has not been restarted. Earlier, in the first week of April, the plant also ran for just four days.

A reliable source informed that the Ghorashal Thermal Power Plant is quite old. It has been refurbished over time to improve its capacity, with significant investment. But the plant still cannot operate at full capacity. In fact, even when BPDB runs other gas-based power plants, the country’s largest gas-power plant remains offline.

However, two BPDB officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Banik Barta that there is another reason behind keeping the Ghorashal plant shut. They said, “The previous government built a large Ghorashal‑Polash urea fertilizer plant in Narsingdi. To keep that fertilizer plant running, we have to keep the power plant offline. The gas supply line’s capacity is limited, so running both at once isn’t an option.”

Md Zohurul Islam, Member (Generation) of BPDB, told Banik Barta, “The total capacity of the Ghorashal Power Plant is 1,300 megawatts. Currently, the plant is ready to generate 750 megawatts, but even this operational segment can’t be run due to the gas shortage. Especially since there’s a fertilizer plant in Ghorashal. To keep that running, the power plant doesn’t get gas. That’s why the plant has to remain shut down most of the time.”

To operate the Ghorashal Power Plant at full capacity, 148 million cubic feet of gas is required per day. On the rare days it runs—maybe once or twice a month—it gets at most 77 to 80 million cubic feet of gas. On the other hand, the daily gas demand at the Ghorashal-Polash Fertilizer Factory is 72 million cubic feet. The factory is being supplied almost the full amount it needs to run fertilizer production. As a result, when gas is allocated to the fertilizer factory, the supply to the power plant decreases.

The Ghorashal Power Plant has a total of seven units, with a combined capacity of 1,105 MW. Of these, Units 1 and 2 have a combined capacity of 110 MW. Unit 3 has a capacity of 260 MW, Unit 4 has 180 MW, Unit 5 has 190 MW, and Unit 6 has 365 MW. After renovations to several of these units, the total capacity has been increased to 1,300 megawatts.

According to BPDB’s annual report, three of the seven units remained shut the entire year. The plant factors for Units 4 and 5 were 49 percent and 59 percent, respectively. The average generation cost at the Ghorashal plant is around BDT 5.50 per unit.

M Tamim, an energy expert and BUET professor, told Banik Barta, “The Ghorashal Power Plant is very old and is known as a power hub in Bangladesh. There’s also foreign investment in this large-scale plant. If it’s efficient and cost-effective, BPDB should prioritize supplying gas to it.”

The total capacity of gas-based power plants in Bangladesh is around 11,500 MW. Based on the available gas supply, BPDB can run plants with a combined capacity of 5,500 to 6,000 MW. The rest of the capacity remains idle for most of the year.