India's Adani resumes full-scale operation and supply of electricity from both of its dedicated power-plant units following a call from Bangladesh at the start of Ramadan.
The Adani Power Jharkhand Ltd (APJL) plant supplied around 1,362 megawatts (MW) of electricity against its combined capacity to supply 1,496 MWs on Monday, according to official data from the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
The power board last month asked the Indian conglomerate to resume full operations at APJL to meet a mounting demand here during Ramadan and the upcoming summer. The Indian firm supplied electricity from both of its units, each having a generation capacity of 750 MWs, in October 2024.
However, Adani shut down one of its two power units in Jharkhand on November 1 last year, halving its cross-border electricity supply to Bangladesh, over payment backlog worth around US$850 million. It also warned of closing down the remaining unit from November 7 unless the BPDB took steps to clear the dues.
Adani, however, retreated from its threat to stop power generation entirely after the BPDB made a payment worth US$170 million through opening a letter of credit (LC) from Bangladesh Krishi Bank.
Officials have said the power board has made payment worth around US$85 million per month to APJL over the past several months, which is above the monthly bill against electricity purchase, to clear the overdue payments.
Adani had long been pressing BPDB to settle its claims, but a persistent dollar crunch was pushing the power board to struggle to pay many independent power producers, as well as oil-fired and coal-fired plants.
The Indian business conglomerate recently offered Bangladesh to settle overdue payments worth around US$800 million by June 2025 to avoid a late- payment surcharge stipulated in their Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
The APJL has offered to waive the late-payment surcharge for the period between January and June 2025 if BPDB clears its monthly invoices on time and settles outstanding dues as of December 2024 by June 30, 2025.
As per the PPA with the BPDB, Indian firm imposes a steep 2.0-percent monthly interest as a late-payment surcharge on the total outstanding bill, which compounds to an annual rate of around 27 per cent, market insiders said.
The power purchase from the APJL plant has turned out to be a 'much-debated' venture since the initiation of power supply from the facility a couple of years back under what is seen as an overrated deal made by the now-deposed Awami League government.
As the APJL started supply, the BPDB had sought a revision of the PPA with the former to import electricity from its Jharkhand plant, but to no avail so far. The deal was inked in November 2017 for 25 years to transmit power through a 400kV (kilovolt) dedicated transmission line connected with the national power grid here.
Transparency International Bangladesh, an anti-graft watchdog, also called for reconsideration and, if necessary, cancellation of the PPA with APJL.
Azizjst@yahoo.com
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