Coal stacks three times the usual height, rising up to 15 meters, smouldered at the Barapukuria coal mine as the 525MW coal-fired Barapukuria power plant shut down its last two units since聽 February 15 due to technical glitches triggered by years of lack of maintenance.
On Wednesday, power generation from the lone local coal-fired power plant plummeted to zero with chances of not resuming operation in at least two weeks.
The power plant is supposed to consume the mine鈥檚 production entirely.
A total of 2.80 lakh tonnes of coal was sitting in the coal stacks with its size growing by around 4,000 tonnes every day, barely leaving any room in the designated coal yards of the mine and the power plant authorities.
鈥楾he standard practice is to keep coal stack height at maximum 6 meters,鈥� said Shaiful Islam Sarkar, managing director, Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited.
Coal stacks are susceptible to self-combustion the chances of which occurring grow with the growth in the height of the stack, he explained.
鈥榃e already spotted smokes on several occasions at the stacks while a flame was also seen once,鈥� said Shaiful.
Disrupted production at the coal-fired power plant led to the massive stacks over the last month, he said, adding that lately the power plant had been using on average 2,000 tonnes of coal daily because of its reduced generation capacity.
Both the BCPCL and the Bangladesh Power Development Board, the owner of the coal plant, were busy spraying water on their coal stacks continuously as the dry season of winter presumably facilitated self-combustion.
The coal mine has been exclusively supplying fuel to the power plant, the main source of electricity for many areas in the northern region.
鈥楾he power plant has been a patchwork for a while now since there has been no maintenance after it started operating in 2018,鈥� said Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique, the chief engineer of the plant.
The plant鈥檚 first unit, which originally had the capacity to generate 125MW but could now produce about 75MW due to lack of maintenance, was the last to close down at 2:43pm on Tuesday.
Leak in the boiler鈥檚 super heater tube led to the closure, Abu Bakar said.
Repairs of the first unit have to wait for two weeks because of the closure, leaving the plant extremely heated at around 1,000C.
Leaks were also behind the closure of the third and the biggest unit of the plant worth 275MW on February 15. Pipe connecting the boiler with the turbine developed the leaks.
鈥楾he pipe has been leaking slightly for a long time. It suddenly just went out of control,鈥� said Abu Bakar.
Heater for heating up air also malfunctioned besides a bearing that broke down while four out of the five coal mills at the 3rd unit were barely operational.
A two-week deadline has been fixed to repair the 3rd unit.
The second unit of the plant with 125MW capacity, which has been out of operation since 2020, badly needed an overhauling.
The company responsible for the plant鈥檚 maintenance never performed its duty during the past Awami League regime, overthrown by a student-led uprising in July-August last year.
鈥楽udden closure will keep haunting the power plant even if it returns to operation for the time being,鈥� said Abu Bakar.
He said that the BPDB asked the BCPCL to sell its coal outside after keeping a certain stock.
With the crisis at Barapukuria, the power sector witnessed yet another grim development, barely days after the 1,320MW imported coal-based Rampal power plant shut down due to fuel shortage triggered by the dollar crisis.
Bangladesh has also not seen any progress regarding its request to the 1,347.54MW Adani power plant to run at its full capacity. The power plant has been running at its half capacity since November last year due to outstanding bills.
After the request, the Adani power said that it could not start full operation due to a technical glitch.
The BCPCL authorities warned that they would not be able to suspend coal mining as the move would have serious consequences.
Suspending operations at the coal mine mean paying demurrage to the Chinese company running the mine with 1,100 local and 250 Chinese staff.
After a phase of mining begins, its abandonment halfway through means leaving the coal exposed to self-combustion, the plant authorities said.
鈥楾he entire phase has to be sealed off,鈥� said Shaiful Islam.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
The current phase under mining at the Barapukuria contains nearly 5 lakh tonnes.
Time is running out fast for Bangladesh to ensure measures to take its current production of 11,000鈥�18,000MW by the time the coming summer peaks in. Bangladesh鈥檚 current installed power generation capacity is 27,884.7MW. But load shedding persisted even during winter, when the electricity demand remained around 10,000MW.
The temperature already started rising. In 200km of Barapukuria in Dinajpur, the day temperature reached 32C on Wednesday, placing the area as the hottest place in the country on the day.
At 6:00pm on Wednesday, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that the Dhaka air contained 49 per cent humidity.
