Adani Power fully resumes energy supply to Bangladesh after 2 weeks

Adani Power has resumed energy supply to Bangladesh as per demand today with its Godda power plant returning to full capacity yesterday (26 August) after almost two weeks.

"The first unit supplied a record 513.32 MW and the second unit 668.57 MW at 8:00am today (27 August), the Indian company's Dhaka office said in a press statement.

"Around 1pm, the first unit recorded 593.35 MW and the second unit 763.94 MW of power," it added.

Adani Power's plant in India's Jharkhand had been operating with only one unit as its second unit shut down on 13 August due to some technical glitches.

The second unit returned to production yesterday at 10:10pm Bangladesh time, stated the press statement.

Due to the recent technical glitch, Adani Power's energy supply to Bangladesh has decreased slightly recently with only one unit producing electricity.

Adani Power supplied above 750MW to Bangladesh on 14 August and 769MW on 15 August.

The power plant usually supplies around 1,500 megawatts of electricity from its two units to Bangladesh.

According to Adani Power, following the closure of the second unit, it maintained the standard communications protocol with the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the Power Grid Company Bangladesh (PGCB).

The company also recently apologised for the unexpected technical glitch.

"Such untoward incidents can happen in the operation of power plants of any domestic or international company like Adani," it said.

"We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Hope to be able to return to full power generation soon," added the company.

The 1,600 megawatt (MW) Godda plant in eastern Jharkhand state is under contract to export 100% of its power to a neighbouring country.

However, this is not the first time the plant has shut down.

Earlier in late June this year, the power supply from the coal-fired power plant was shut down completely.

One of the units has been closed for routine maintenance since before the Eid-ul-Adha holidays. The second unit shut down due to mechanical failure.

Adani Power is under contract to export power to Bangladesh.

However, Bangladesh has a huge amount of unpaid bills to the company.

According to a Reuters report published on 23 August, Adani Power has raked up unpaid dues of as much as $800 million from Bangladesh.

The Indian government has recently allowed the company, which was under contract to sell all its output to Bangladesh from the Godda plant, to supply energy to the domestic market.

An internal federal power ministry memo, dated 12 August and seen by Reuters, amends 2018 guidelines governing generators supplying electricity "exclusively to a neighbouring country"

Adani Power, however, said the recent amendments to the Electricity Act in India will have no effect on the electricity supply agreement between the two countries.