POBNEWS24, Dhaka Feb 11, 2025 : Indian business group Adani Group has been supplying half of its power generation capacity to Bangladesh for more than three months. Bangladesh has requested full power supply from Adani’s power plant ahead of the upcoming summer season. Reuters reports.
The Adani Group’s coal-fired power plant in Godda, Jharkhand, has a generation capacity of 1,600 megawatts. It has two units with a capacity of 800 megawatts. One unit has been off-grid since November. Now Bangladesh has asked for full power from both units.
A Bangladeshi official told Reuters that demand for power was low in the winter. In addition, power supply from Adani’s plant had halved due to a dispute over payment of outstanding electricity bills. The supply has now been requested to be restored to its previous level.
The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) signed a purchase agreement with Adani in 2017 during the time of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh will buy the electricity generated from the plant, built at a cost of $2 billion, for 25 years. Commercial electricity production from the first unit of Adani’s power plant began in April 2023. Commercial production from the second unit began in June of the same year.
Reuters said that Bangladesh is in a dollar crisis. Due to this, Adani closed one unit on October 31 after it was unable to pay the electricity bill on time. As a result, the electricity supply was halved. Then, due to low demand in the winter, Bangladesh also requested to continue supplying half of the electricity (from one unit).
The Bangladesh Power Development Board told Reuters that it is paying Adani’s company $85 million or $85 million per month. Now, due to increasing demand, it has asked the second unit to restart electricity supply.
BPDB Chairman Md. Rezaul Karim told Reuters, “Adani’s company had planned to start the second unit as per our current demand. However, due to high vibration and some technical issues, it was not possible.”
“Currently, we are paying $85 million a month. We are trying to pay more and our aim is to reduce the arrears. As a result, there is no major problem with Adani now,” Rezaul Karim added.
A spokesman for Adani Power did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. However, in December, an Adani source said that they owed BPDB about $900 million, or 900 million. At that time, the BPDB chairman said the arrears amounted to $650 million.
Bangladesh has a dispute with Adani over the pricing of electricity. According to Reuters, Adani’s power plants provide electricity to Bangladesh for about 55 percent more than other Indian power plants.
Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi court has ordered an expert committee to examine the power purchase agreement with India’s Adani Group. The committee’s report is expected to come out this month. Then, Reuters reported, negotiations with Adani could resume.
The Reuters report also said that Hasina fled to the Indian capital, New Delhi, in August last year in the face of student-led protests. Then, in September, the interim government appointed a panel of experts to examine major energy contracts signed during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.
On the other hand, the interim government has accused Adani of irregularities in the power purchase agreement. It said that the tax benefits that Adani received from Delhi for the power plant in Jharkhand were not given to Bangladesh. This information came to light in a Reuters report last December. Bangladesh officials then said that they were reviewing the agreement. Although an Adani spokesman told Reuters that they had fulfilled all their obligations to Bangladesh. They had no information that Bangladesh was reviewing the agreement.
BPDB Chairman Md. Rezaul Karim did not respond to Reuters’ questions about whether the dispute between the two parties has been resolved.
