Adani supply falls by half, power crisis grows in BD
An 800MW unit of Adani Power’s 1,600MW Godda power plant in India’s Jharkhand has shut down due to a technical fault, further straining Bangladesh’s already tight power supply and increasing load shedding across the country.
Sources at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Power Grid Bangladesh PLC said generation at the Godda plant had declined from August 7 after storms disrupted coal supplies.
After operating at reduced capacity for nearly a month, the plant gradually increased generation toward the end of August.
However, shortly after production began to recover, the plant encountered a fresh technical problem, forcing one of its two units to shut down.
The disruption has significantly reduced electricity supplies from the plant to Bangladesh, putting additional pressure on the national grid.
According to Power Grid Bangladesh data, the plant supplied 1,430MW to Bangladesh at around 9pm on September 9. Supply began falling about two hours later.
By the evening of September 10, supply had dropped to just 691MW. It has since fluctuated at around 700MW.
Under normal conditions, the Godda plant supplies between 1,200MW and 1,400MW to Bangladesh.
Officials said electricity supply was already below national demand. The loss of one unit at the Adani plant has therefore added further pressure to the grid, resulting in increased load shedding in different areas.
They expect the situation to improve once the technical fault is repaired and the affected unit is brought back online. However, there was no immediate information on when the unit would resume generation.
The Godda coal-fired power plant has a total generation capacity of 1,600MW, with two units of 800MW each.
With one unit shut down, the plant is currently operating at roughly half its capacity.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board signed a power purchase agreement with Adani Power in 2017 to import electricity from the Godda plant.
The latest disruption comes as BPDB is already struggling to meet electricity demand amid a fuel shortage.
With supplies from the Adani plant falling sharply, the pressure on the country’s power management system has increased further, raising concerns over continued load shedding.
