The start of commercial operation of the Sylhet CCGT increases Bangladesh’s overall electricity output by 640 million kWh per annum, helping to meet the rising power demand in the country’s industrial eastern region. Sylhet’s hinterland is home to the country’s largest gas fields, allowing the power plant operator to rely on domestically produced fuel.
Works to retrofit the gas turbine generator technology had been carried out under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, awarded by the plant operator PDB. Shanghai Electric noted it had been chosen to carry out the plant conversion after having “built solid experience through overall five projects in Bangladesh so far since 2002.”
Leveraging GVPI technology
As part of the upgrade, the power plant has been equipped 100 MW global vacuum pressure impregnation (GVPI) air-cooled generator which helped increase the plant’s capacity by 90 MW. It also improved the efficiency of the original plant's simple, open-cycle application from 33% to 55%, Shanghai Electric noted.
“We are always looking ahead to anticipate the client’s needs and improve the availability, reliability and efficiency through a customised solution designed for different regional markets,” said project chief engineer Wang Yi.
In the eight years prior to the upgrade, the plant has provided 8.19 billion kWh of electricity to Bangladesh’s national grid and this figure is estimated to increase by 640 million kWh on an annual basis.
Sylhet was Shanghai Electric’s fourth EPC project in Bangladesh, initiated under the "One Belt One Road" Initiative, following the Barapukuria thermal power plant. During the construction period, the Chinese developer hired 500 local workers.