Barapukuria Breakdown Halts Power Production

Power generation at the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant in Dinajpur has come to a complete halt after a boiler tube burst. Authorities say it may take at least a week to repair the damage and resume operations.

The incident was confirmed on Sunday night, January 18, by Abu Bakar Siddique, Chief Engineer of the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant. He said that on Sunday morning, a boiler tube of Unit-1, which has a generation capacity of 125 megawatts, ruptured, forcing the unit to shut down immediately.

The boiler operates at a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius. Repair work will begin once the boiler cools down, he added.

Although it is not possible to give a precise timeline for restarting production, the chief engineer indicated that a minimum of one week may be required to make the unit operational again.

With the shutdown of Unit-1, power generation at the plant has come to a complete stop, as the other two units were already non-operational.

The 275-megawatt Unit-3 has remained shut since November 1 last year due to mechanical faults. Meanwhile, the 125-megawatt Unit-2 has been out of service since November 2020. Due to the substantial financial requirements, the ministry has yet to decide on restarting Unit-2.

However, officials said that necessary spare parts for Unit-3 are being imported from China, and generation from the unit may resume from March.

DBTech/BTE/EK/OR