Adani threatens to cut power from 11 Nov if dues remain unpaid, confirms adviser
Adani Power has threatened to suspend electricity supply to Bangladesh from 11 November if the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) fails to clear its “long-held” dues by 10 November, confirmed Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan.
Speaking to The Business Standard today (4 November), Fouzul Kabir said, “Adani had written us a letter to clear outstanding bills. In the letter, they threatened to suspend power supply over unpaid dues from 11 November if payments are not made by November 10.”
According to officials at PDB and the Power Division, the warning came in a formal letter sent in late October by Avinash Anurag, Head of Energy Regulatory & Commercial at Adani Power, to the PDB chairman.
In the letter, Adani Power stated that PDB had failed to settle “long held” $496 million in outstanding bills despite repeated reminders and communications.
Of this, PDB’s own acknowledged dues of $262 million also remain unpaid, the letter further said.
Citing continuous non-payment, Adani invoked sections 13.2(i)(i) and (ii) of the 2017 Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which allowed the Indian giant Adani Power to suspend power supply in case of default by the buyer (PDB), claimed Adani.
The company also stated that, even if supply is halted, it remains entitled to capacity payments based on the plant’s “dependable capacity.”
When asked how the government would respond if Adani followed through on the threat, Fouzul Kabir said, “We will sit to address the issue.”
This is not the first instance of strain in the Adani-PDB relationship.
Earlier in November 2024, Adani Power reduced electricity supply to Bangladesh by about 60%, citing overdue bills amounting to $800 million – a figure PDB disputed, saying it was calculated using Adani’s own mechanism.
According to PDB’s FY2023–24 annual report, Adani Power supplied an average of 932.31 MW of electricity per month from its 1,600 MW Godda Power Plant in India’s Jharkhand state, exclusively built for exporting power to Bangladesh.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina regime in August last year, Indian government allowed Adani to sell power in the local market by bringing an amendment in the 2018 guidelines governing generators supplying electricity exclusively to a neighbouring country.