The 1,496MW Adani power plant in India shut the other unit on Saturday citing technical glitches four days after its one unit went out of operation, hardening challenges to Bangladesh鈥檚 interim government to meet the country鈥檚 growing power demand as summer peaks.
The power supply from India鈥檚 Tripura also halved over the past month dropping to maximum 40MW at the moment from 80MW supplied in the third week of the past month. Tripura is scheduled to supply 160MW.
Power imports from India, especially from the Adani power plant, faced intermittent hurdles since the overthrow of the previous prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in the face of a student-led uprising in August in the past year.
The Adani power plant had even threatened to discontinue its power supply to Bangladesh at the end of the past year unless it immediately cleared dues.
But before that, India changed its power export law, allowing Adani to sell electricity domestically. The power plant in India鈥檚 Godda has started its operation under the law to exclusively supply electricity to Bangladesh.
鈥楾he latest shutdown is triggered by a malfunctioning heater,鈥� said Zahurul Islam, member, Bangladesh Power Development Board.
鈥楶ower supply from the plant is expected to resume in two to three days,鈥� he said.
After the first unit shutdown, Adani assured Bangladesh of resuming production from April 11. The first shut down occurred at 9:00am on April 8.
The latest shutdown came at 1:00 am on Saturday, catching Bangladesh rather off-guard.
Load shedding reached 428MW at 3:00pm when power generation stood at 13,552MW against the demand for 14,000MW. In the peak hours, between 7:00pm and 10:00pm, power demand lately surged to 15,500MW.聽聽聽
Bangladesh has a little more than a week in hand to arrange for additional power supply for its demand is forecasted to reach about 18,000MW at the end of April, the hottest time of year. The onset of a wet spell is likely to buy Bangladesh a week鈥檚 time.
After a day鈥檚 gap, a fresh heatwave started in southeast and southwest聽 Bangladesh鈥檚 five districts 鈥� Chattogram, Rangamati, Bandarban, Feni, and Bagerhat. Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum day temperature of 36.5C on Saturday was recorded in Rangamati. Rain has been sweeping over northern regions, including Rajshahi and Sylhet. The rain spell is likely to intensify today and continue until April 21, more or less.
In a bid to make up for the absence of power supply from Adani, Bangladesh has increased its power production from gas and coal slightly, besides increasing generation from oil by more than 1,000MW.
Before April 8, Adani was supplying over 1,300MW.
Bangladesh鈥檚 current installed power generation capacity is 27,535MW with natural gas accounting for 40 per cent and oil and coal for 20 per cent each of the generation capacity. Power import accounts for 10 per cent of the generation capacity.
A dollar crisis has mainly limited Bangladesh鈥檚 ability to use the generation capacity triggering fuel shortage. None of the baseload coal power plants could run to their full capacity while the 1200MW Matarbari power plant barely produced around 160MW.
Many gas power plants are sitting idle, too. For instance, the new 718MW JERA Meghnaghat power plant is producing no power due to the gas shortage.
The idle power plants, entitled to capacity payment, proved to be a huge burden on Bangladesh鈥檚 economy during the 15-year tenure of the ousted Hasina government.
On January 7, Bangladesh鈥檚 outstanding bill to power exporters in India rose to Tk 6,823 crore, including 5,467 crore owed to the Adani power. Bangladesh聽was trying to pay Adani in regular installments. Late payment earns a surcharge for Adani.聽
Adani claims even larger dues, which Bangladesh refuses to pay, finding the power purchase agreement with Adani discriminatory, allowing Adani to manipulate and inflate its energy bills.
Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 fall triggered widespread demand for cancelling the deal with Adani, which local and international energy experts called unequal and harmful to Bangladesh.
But there has been no visible progress in revising the deal, let alone cancelling it.
