India's Adani resumed full-scale operation from its Godda power plant in India on Tuesday morning after around a week of hiatus, increasing Bangladesh's overall electricity supply to meet the summer demand, said sources.
The unit-2 of Adani Power Jharkhand Ltd (APJL) lighted up its boiler at around 9:04 in the morning and completed synchronization with the national power transmission line at 14:42 pm, an official familiar with the matter told The Financial Express.
Power supply from the unit-2 raced to around 636.62 megawatts (MW) at around 7:00 pm, raising the overall electricity supply from the Indian power plant to more than 1375 MW, the official added.
Earlier on Saturday, electricity supply from both the units of the APJL was suspended for around 18 hours due to a technical fault. Unit-1 of the APJL resumed operation soon after the incident.
The APJL had been running both of its units for around a month since early March following a call from Bangladesh at the start of Ramadan.
The APJL supplied even more than its official capacity during Ramadan, which played a significant role in ensuring a load-shedding-free Ramadan, according to official data from the BPDB.
The power purchase from the APJL plant has turned out to be a 'much-debated' issue in Bangladesh since the initiation of power supply from the facility a couple of years back under what is seen as an overrated deal signed by the deposed Awami League government.
As the APJL started supply, the BPDB sought a revision of the PPA with the former on the import of 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. There are contentious issues over coal pricing, capacity payment, tax waiver and other costs involving the APJL.
Adani had shut down one of its two power units in Jharkhand on November 01 last year, halving its cross-border electricity supply to Bangladesh, over a 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, backtracked on its decision 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.
Azizjst@yahoo.com
