Indian private-sector utility Adani Power has commissioned the first 800MW unit at its 1.6GW thermal power project in Godda in the eastern state of Jharkhand.
The utility has started supplying 748MW of power to Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) from its Jharkhand project. Adani Power had signed an initial agreement with BPDB in 2015 to develop a cross-border 1.6GW thermal power project in Jharkhand. A power purchase agreement was signed between Adani Power and BPDB in 2017 to supply 1,496MW of power to Bangladesh for 25 years.
The Jharkhand project will sell power to Bangladesh through a dedicated cross-border 400 kilovolt (kV) double circuit transmission line connecting to the Bangladesh grid. The electricity supplied from the Godda plant will replace expensive power generated from liquid fuel, bringing down the average cost of power in Bangladesh, the company said.
The power tariff from this unit is estimated at around 9¢/KWh and is "competitive" compared with the peers, Adani Power said. BPDB had earlier this year asked Adani Power for discounts on power charges. The request coincided with a fall in seaborne coal prices.
A second 800MW unit is at an advanced stage of completion and is expected to be commissioned soon, Adani Power informed the stock exchanges on 7 April.
Adani, India's largest private utility, operates 13.61GW of thermal generation capacity in the Gujarat and Maharashtra states of west India, Madhya Pradesh in central India, Rajasthan in north India and Karnataka in south India. The company has not announced any greenfield thermal power projects in recent years, but has increased its capacity through acquisitions.
Stressed power assets with a locational advantage are an opportunity to enhance capacity while avoiding execution risks, the company had said in its annual report for April 2021-March 2022. Adani Power consumed 35.3mn t of coal in the 2021-22 fiscal year, of which 7.3mn t was imported.
