Electricity supply from Adani power plant resumes after 17 hours
Highlights:
- The plant's first unit resumed operation today
- Full supply to be restored within 3-4 days
Electricity supply from Adani power plant resumed after 17 hours today (12 April) as the plant's first unit resumed operation at 6:15pm.
Sources at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the sole buyer of Adani power, confirmed the matter to The Business Standard.
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The supply was shut down at Friday midnight (11 April) following a cycle of technical glitches in the Air Preheater, resulting in the short supply of electricity for at least 1,300-1,400 megawatts in national demand of around 15,000MW.
The Adani-owned power plant at Godda in India's Jharkhand has two units with 800MW each, with a combined capacity of 1,600MW. The first unit started commercial operation on 7 April 2023.
The first unit of 800MW capacity went out of operation on 8 April after detecting a leakage in the Air Preheater, a component to make air hotter before entering the boiler to burn coal to produce electricity.
Since then, BPDB received around 650-700MW from the second unit, but it also went out of operation at around 1am Friday.
Speaking to The Business Standard earlier today, BPDB Member (Generation) Md Zahurul Islam said there was a technical problem in the Air Preheater that caused the complete shutdown of electricity from the Adani power plant.
"When the first unit stopped production, we were assured by Adani of running the first unit within 4-5 days. Now the second unit also went out of production from Friday midnight. We expect the full production within 4-5 days," said Zahurul.
BPDB sources said that if any problem is detected in the Air Preheater, it will ultimately make the boiler out of order, as the boiler ignites with the help of heat supplied by the Air Preheater.
In such cases, the boiler has to cool down first to fix the problem in the Air Preheater, which could take 3-5 days depending on outside weather.
BPDB Chairman Md Rezaul Karim said full supply of electricity will be restored within 3-4 days.
BPDB sources said Petrobangla was instructed to ensure an increased supply from gas-fired power plants to fill the void created by the Adani power plant.
The BPDB signed a power purchase agreement with Adani in 2017.
