Power crisis almost unchanged despite supply from Adani plant
Power supply from Adani’s plant crossed 1,000MW, while S Alam group’s plant shut down within three days of starting the test run
People have been facing hours of load shedding despite a drop in demand for electricity following light and medium rainfalls in different areas across the country as power generation has not increased much recently.
While the electricity supply from Adani's power plant increased on Thursday, S Alam Group's plant shut down over a coal shortage on the same day. Earlier, Payra 1320MW Power Plant shut down on 5 June over a coal crisis.
Electricity supply from Indian Adani Group's Godda 1600MW Thermal Power Plant has crossed 1,000MW, thanks to a test run of the plant's second unit, amid a drop in supply from the local plants.
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Electricity supply from the Godda power plant reached 1,083 MW at 11pm on Thursday, and 1,069MW at 10am yesterday, according to the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board has been putting pressure on Adani's Godda 1600MW Thermal Plant to start generating power from its second unit as it missed the deadline for launching the commercial operation of that unit.
Consequently, Adani's Godda Power plant started its pre-commissioning test run in the first week of this month.
On 1-2 June, the maximum power supply per hour from the plant was 1,070MW. Then its second unit halted the operation for a few days before resuming operation on Thursday.
Officials of Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited's Dhaka office, told The Business Standard that as part of the pre-commissioning test, they will run the second unit at full capacity for seven more days.
"The unit will be ready for commercial operation by 15 June," said an official of the power plant.
Since 9 April, the first unit of Adani's Godda 1,600MW Thermal Plant has been supplying 700MW of electricity on average to Bangladesh.
The first unit of the Adani's plant was originally scheduled to start commercial operation in July 2022 and the second unit in December of the same year.
The ruling party presented SS 1320MW Thermal Power Plant as a solution to the power crisis when Payra 1320MW Power Plant completely shut down on 5 June.
Unfortunately, S Alam's plant could not ease the crisis as it closed at 11pm on Thursday, only three days after its first unit started a pre-commissioning test run, over a coal shortage.
The plant would not be able to resume operation before 18 June, when a shipment of coal is expected to arrive, said Md Faizur Rahman, deputy project director of SS Power.
Payra 1320 MW Thermal Power Plant, the biggest in the country, shut down on 5 June over difficulties in paying for fuel imports amid declining forex reserves and a rising dollar exchange rate.
In order to improve the supply situation, the Bangladesh Power Development Board is trying hard to increase electricity generation with all the possible options.
The country's maximum load shedding per hour was 2,975MW at 2am on Thursday, a little less than around 3,200MW recorded on 7 June.
