Adani Power chapter begins in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has started to receive about 750 megawatts of electricity from the Adani power plant in India yesterday, putting to bed the suspense surrounding the start of the cross-border transmission.
Commercial production at the power plant, located in an Indian village about 100km from the Bangladesh border, began after a successful 14-day reliability test that ended yesterday, The Daily Star has learnt from top officials of the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources and Adani Group. They spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Reliability test is the continuous uninterrupted operation of the entire facility for 72 hours at maximum load.
The reliability test was conducted in presence of a technical committee of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB).
"They [Adani Power] are eligible to announce the commercial operation date," Power Secretary Habibur Rahman told The Daily Star.
However, some procedures need to be completed before an official start date is announced, he added.
Power Grid Company of Bangladesh data showed that Jharkhand's Godda power plant was supplying about 750 megawatts of electricity on average since April 1.
The power plant, which is on 425 hectares of land in the Indian eastern state of Jharkhand's Godda district, produced 685MW of electricity in peak time during the day and 749MW in the evening peak time, data shows.
The electricity that is coming -- through a dedicated transmission line of approximately 106km up to the Indian border -- is from the first unit of the 1,600MW ultra-supercritical plant. The second unit will start production soon, according to Adani Group officials.
PDB is obliged to take 34 percent of the power generated by the plant every year over the 25-year contracted period.
The price of electricity from the plant, which was built at an estimated cost of Rs 14,816 crore, would be $0.1363 per kilowatt-hour at the current coal rate in the international market, Adani Group said in a statement on April 2.
The energy cost would be $0.0939 per kilowatt-hour and the capacity charge $0.0424 per kWh, according to the statement.
"Adani Godda is willing to indicate that its delivered price would never be higher than its peer independent power producers, namely Rampal, Matarbari and S Alam stations," it wrote.
However, BPDB officials declined to comment on the pricing issue.
The prices of coal for Godda will be fixed based on the average price of two indexes -- the Indonesian HBA Index and the Australian Global Coal Newcastle Index, according to the power purchase agreement between Adani Group and PDB.