Adani Power’s Godda power plant in Jharkhand, India, has resumed supplying electricity to Bangladesh from both its units after Unit-2, which was shut down due to a technical fault, was brought back online.

At around 2pm on Sunday, Unit-1 was supplying 756MW and Unit-2 was supplying 290MW to Bangladesh, according to officials. Generation from Unit-2 is expected to gradually rise to around 750MW.

Power supply from the plant had fallen to around 758MW after one of its two units stopped operating. Before the shutdown, the plant was supplying more than 1,400MW to Bangladesh.

The affected unit went offline around midnight on 9 September following a technical problem. Its restart means both 800MW units of the 1,600MW plant are now operational.

The plant had also faced lower generation earlier due to a coal supply shortage. Coal transportation was disrupted by a storm from 7 August, while generation began to increase after coal supplies improved towards the end of August. The plant was subsequently supplying around 900MW during the daytime and up to 1,200MW from the evening  until midnight. The shutdown came at a time when Bangladesh’s power system was under severe pressure. At around 3pm last Thursday, power demand stood at 16,345MW against supply of around 12,788MW, leaving a shortfall of 3,557MW. Average load shedding that day was 2,657MW per hour.

The Godda plant has two units, each with a capacity of 800MW. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) signed a power purchase agreement with the plant in 2017.

The plant has previously supplied more than 1,500MW to Bangladesh based on demand. With both units back in operation, officials expect the additional supply to help reduce the power shortage in the national grid.

SM/CityizenTimes