Adani Power reveals $900 million unpaid dues from Bangladesh’s power board

Adani Power Limited is yet to receive $900 million in arrears from the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), where it supplies power from its Godda Power Plant in Jharkhand, the company’s CFO revealed in a call to analysts and investors. “As of now, the total billing we have done so far is around $2 billion. We have already received $1.207 billion out of this, and we have also billed LPS of $136 million. So, as of now, on a gross basis including LPS, our outstanding is around $900 million,” CFO Dilip Kumar Jha said.

Despite its arrears, India’s largest private thermal producer has continued to supply power to Bangladesh. “We are supplying full power to Bangladesh, and we have never stated that there was an issue of the level that would stop the supply. Fortunately, in the last quarter, the outstanding has gone down by ₹500 crore. So, the payment which we are getting now is more than the monthly billing,” explained SB Khyalia, CEO, Adani Power.

Khyalia added that the company is hopeful that it will not only get the payment equivalent to the current rate of monthly billing, but has also expressed optimism that it will get its arrears “liquidated”. “The payments that are coming up are also showing that indication”. Jha later said that there is no delay in payment from any of the Indian distribution companies (discoms) to which it supplies power. The only discom that has gross overdues is from Bangladesh.

Adani Power commenced supplying electricity to Bangladesh from its Godda power plant on June 26, 2023, following the commercial commissioning of the plant's second 800 MW unit. The Godda plant, an ultra-supercritical thermal power plant (USCTTP) and the largest thermal independent power project (IPP), was specifically constructed to export power exclusively to Bangladesh. It was the first power plant in the country, which started its operations from day one with 100% Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD), SCR and Zero Water discharge.

The first unit had achieved commercial operations on April 6, 2023. The Godda plant, with a total capacity of 1,600 MW, was developed under a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed in November 2017 between Adani Power (Jharkhand) Ltd and the BPDB. Electricity is transmitted to Bangladesh via a dedicated 400 kV transmission line. The PPA also envisaged significantly reducing the per-unit cost of power by decreasing dependency on power generated from liquid fuel.

However, in late 2024, Bangladesh faced challenges in meeting its payment obligations due to increased import costs and political instability. Consequently, Adani Power reduced its electricity supply by half on October 31, 2024, and shut down one of the two units on November 1, 2024.