Adani Power’s subsidiary company Adani Power Jharkhand Limited (APJL) has reduced its electricity supply to Bangladesh by half due to outstanding bill of $846 million. According to a news published in the newspaper ‘Daily Star’ on Friday, data from Power Grid Bangladesh PLC showed that the power plant of Adani Group had reduced the supply from Thursday night. According to media reports, Bangladesh reported a power shortage of more than 1600 MW in the night between Thursday and Friday. The reason for this is that the plant with a capacity of about 1496 MW is now producing only 700 MW of electricity from one unit.
Adani Power had written a letter on 27 October
Earlier, Adani Power had written a letter to the Energy Secretary of Bangladesh requesting that Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) be asked to pay the outstanding amount by October 30. The Adani Group company had said in a letter written on October 27 that if the outstanding bills are not paid, the company will be forced to take necessary steps under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) by suspending the power supply on October 31.
Bangladesh reneged on loan of $170 million
Adani Power said that PDB has neither provided the loan facility of $170 million from Bangladesh Agricultural Bank nor paid the outstanding amount of $846 million. The Daily Star quoted a PDB official as saying that a part of the dues had been paid earlier, but since July, APJL has been charging more than in previous months. He said PDB is paying around $18 million per week, while the charges are more than $22 million, due to which the arrears have increased.
Company increased prices on completion of 1 year of agreement
Regarding the additional payment, this official said that when PDB raised questions about the coal price in February last year, a supplementary agreement was signed. In this, the Adani Group company was forced to keep the prices lower than the rates charged by other coal-based power plants. The report says that after the completion of the one-year supplementary deal period, Adani Power has again started charging as per the PPA.
With PTI inputs
