Dhaka, Feb 16 (UNB) - Summit Group, the country’s electricity conglomerate, on Thursday signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Chinese contractor - Consortium of NEPC and CNEEC - to install its 335 MW power plant at Meghnaghat.

The NEPC (National Electric Power Corporation) and the CNEEC (China National Electric Engineering Co. Ltd) are two Chinese companies joined hands through a consortium to work as an EPC contractor for the project.

Earlier, the Summit had initialed with US-based General Electric (GE) company for supply of two units of gas turbine and spares parts, and also for maintenance service to the project.

Under the contract, the Chinese consortium will do the EPC job while, as per initialed with GE, the GE France Energy Products SNC, a European subsidiary of USA energy giant, will supply the gas turbine and other equipment to the project.

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, who witnessed the agreement signing function at Sonargaon Hotel in the city, said this is a wonderful example of partnership among American, Bangladeshi and Chinese companies.

Welcoming the contract, he said it will not only create jobs and employments, but also play a role in ensuring Bangladesh’s energy security.

Citing the deal with GE, President Obama has set a target to double the American export by 2050 and GE’s such deal will help achieve the target.

Prime Minister’s Advisor Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister for Power and Energy Mohammad Enamul Haque, US Ambassador Dan W Mozena, CNEEC’s President Zhao Ruolin and Summit Group’s Chairman Mohammed Aziz Khan also spoke at the function.

Summit Group’s director Faisal Karim Khan and NEPC’s Vice president Liu Yanbing inked the deal on behalf of their respective sides.

Summit Group has so far obtained a good number of independent power producer (IPP) projects under the present government’s initiative to boost power production to 13,000 MW by 2015.

Of the projects, Meghnaghat is one of the three largest base-load schemes. The remaining two are Bibiyana-I and Bibiyana-II, each having similar 335 MW of capacity.

Aziz Khan said the Meghnaghat project, a dual-fuel combined cycle plant, will cost more than US$ 275 million. Four local banks-Janata, Islami, Brac and Trust Bank will finance the project through a syndication loan.

The Summit Group inked the three deals for the three IPP projects with the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) in May 12, 2011 to implement the projects.

As per contracts, all these three base-load plants will be combined cycle and will supply electricity to the government for 22 years time.

The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from these plants at the rates between 3.3220 and 3.9863 US Cent per kilowatt hour.

Single cycle units of these three plants are scheduled to come into operation in May 2013 while their combined cycle units will start commercial operation in May 2014.