Photo: Collected
Despite having cheaper domestic options, the government continuously imports expensive electricity from the Indian company Adani Power Limited.
According to agreements with Adani and Matarbari, Adani's power price is Tk 14.02 per unit, while the price of the Matarbari-1,200 MW power plant is Tk 8.5 per unit. However, both plants' prices vary with the international coal market.
The annual coal requirement for Adani's Godda plant is estimated to be 7-9 million tonnes. But due to the omission of a discount provision, Bangladesh will ultimately end up paying Adani Power Tk 20-22 per unit of electricity once all the hidden costs are added to the tariff.
According to the Power Development Board's annual report, the price of Adani power is recorded as Tk 14.02, excluding capacity and other charges.
PDB data shows that as of May 29, Adani is supplying 921 MW, Rampal (1,320 MW capacity) is supplying 550 MW, Payra (1,320 MW) is supplying 620 MW, and Matarbari (1,200 MW capacity) did not supply any electricity, although on May 28, it supplied 502 MW, the cheapest option.
Professor Shamsul Alam told The Daily Messenger, “If we don't import from Adani, we will lose more as the plant factor of Adani is 95 to 96 percent. As a result, the capacity charge is high for Adani.”
He said the government did not follow a competitive procedure while awarding the contract to the Adani Group. The plant factor of Matarbari is 68.42 percent. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Adani Power was signed in November 2017 in Dhaka.
According to Power Division documents, Bangladesh would pay Adani Power an estimated $23.87 billion, equivalent to Tk 2.4 trillion (considering a US dollar exchange rate of Tk 100), over the 25-year life cycle of the plant if the PPA remains unchanged.
However, analyzing the import data from India, Adani is charging more than double the cost. The cost per unit for fiscal 2022-2023 of NVV LTD 250 MW India is Tk 4.22, NVV LTD 160 MW Tripura India is Tk 8.45, NVV LTD 300 MW India is Tk 7.15, PTC India 200 MW is Tk 9.5, and Sembcorp Energy Ltd is Tk 9.95 per unit.
Until February, the import bill from Indian companies stood at Tk 3,637.16 crore for Adani, Tk 667.04 crore for Sembcorp Energy Ltd, Tk 586.06 crore for PTC India 200 MW, Tk 65.46 crore for NVV LTD 160 MW Tripura, and Tk 61.93 crore for NVV LTD 250 MW India.
The total outstanding import from India aggregated Tk 5,297 crore, of which Tk 3,637.61 crore was owed to the Adani Group. The current outstanding of PDB stood at Tk 33,108 crore until February 2023.
According to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), Bangladesh has imported 1,600 MW of electricity from the Adani Group since November 2018.
The Power Secretary, Habibur Rahman, did not respond to repeated calls from the reporter.
Messenger/Disha
