India, Bangladesh to cooperate on power exchange

India and Bangladesh has created a Joint Technical Team to explore the possibility of power exchange.

The construction of a 500 MW HVDC connection is already underway at Bheramara, Bangladesh and the two countries want to take this cooperation forward. The JTT wants a total transfer capacity of 2,000 MW to be constructed over the long run, and discussed the possibility of setting up a high capacity 400 KV double circuit link with HVDC back to back terminal at Bangladesh for this purpose

The JTT recently examined Bangladesh's request for acquisition of 100-200 MW of power from the Pallatana power project in Tripura.

Bangladesh is power deficient to the extent of nearly 1,000 MW during the summer months, and 200 MW of capacity from India would bring down the deficit to a significant degree.

India is open to the request and suggested that an appropriate interconnection capacity should be planned keeping in view both, the short as well as long term requirements.

An interconnection for transfer of 200 MW with the help of a 132 KV high capacity double circuit line from Tripura to Camilla, Bangladesh was also discussed. For such a system, four power generation alternatives were put forth. These are-- Pallatana, Surajmaninagar, P.K Bari and Monarchak stations.