Bangladesh expressed its surprise and shock after the Indian media on Sunday reported that Adani gave a fresh deadline to get a roadmap on the payment of its dues by November 7 or face complete suspension in power supply.

Experts, however, said that by importing adequate fuel and utilising the country’s rest of the power generation capacity, Bangladesh would still be able to manage the situation if Adani entirely stops its supply.

The 1,496MW coal-based power plant operated by the Adani-Jharkhand Power Limited is currently supplying about 700MW after it has halved its generation following the previous deadline served by it for payment of dues expired on October 31.

The Times of India reported that the power plant would switch off after the fresh deadline unless Bangladesh clarified its position on the payment of the outstanding bill of $850million.

‘We are surprised and shocked,’ said the interim government’s power, energy and mineral resources adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan.

He said that Bangladesh paid $96 million in October and also opened a letter of credit worth $170 million for Adani, stating that the outstanding bill was over $600 million.

‘We are paying. Such a deadline is unacceptable. We are ready to deal with the situation when Adani stops supplying power,’ said the adviser.

‘We cannot allow others to hold us hostage,’ he said.

The chief adviser’s press wing at a press conference said that the power, energy and mineral resources ministry did not officially receive any letters giving a fresh deadline until Sunday afternoon.

Experts observe that with the winter setting in, Adani’s switching off the plant might not create a big problem for the time being as reduced air temperature would cause the electricity demand to plunge.

The winter season will stay until February.

Adani stopping its supply ignoring Bangladesh’s demand could be beneficial for the country, experts said, analysing the power purchase agreement signed with the company.

Bangladesh would have to pay 34 per cent bill in addition to capacity charge and fuel cost if it refused to take power from Adani, experts said.

‘Bangladesh would have to pay nothing if Adani stops power supply,’ said Hasan Mehedi, member secretary, Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development.

Bangladesh, however, cannot fine Adani for taking such arbitrary decisions, which is possible under the agreements signed with other power plants.

Bangladesh’s current installed capacity is 27,791MW, while its derated capacity is 27,086MW.

The current maximum demand is about 13,000MW, while in summer, the electricity demand reaches about 17,000MW.

Bangladesh will have 25,590MW in operation minus Adani, enough to meet the demand during peak summer with a surplus power generation capacity of 8,590MW.

‘Bangladesh will need to run the power plants in the country at greater plant load factor,’ said Mehedi.

The maximum plant load factor in power plants in the country is 40 per cent. Raising the factor to 50 per cent could make up for the absence of Adani’s power plant, he said.

Bangladesh can increase the plant load factor by importing fuel or with support from renewable energy. The renewable energy option, however, is not valid at the moment because of the Hasina government’s overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels.

Plant load factor is a measure of a power plant’s capacity utilisation.

The amount claimed as outstanding by Adani is, however, not consistent with the amount the Bangladesh Power Development Board says it actually owes to the company.

The power development board has already accused Adani of inflating its bill by about a third taking advantage of the power purchase agreement signed under the direct supervision of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ousted on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising, and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

The agreement, which allowed Adani to greatly manipulate coal prices also made headlines in the national and international media for clauses highly discriminatory to Bangladesh. Under the PPA, the plant was established with a $2 billion investment to earn Adani $12 billion in its lifetime of 25 years.

Concern arose in February after it had come to light that Adani’s coal was far more expensive than its peers. Adani then signed a supplementary deal with the Hasina government to bring the fuel price down to match other power plants.

But the Indian company refused to renew the supplementary deal after Hasina was toppled in July-August uprising.

Immediately after Hasina fled to India after the overthrow of her government, India changed its power export rules allowing Adani, which set up the power plant exclusively for producing power for Bangladesh, to sell electricity domestically.

Earlier in September, the group’s chairman Gautam Adani wrote to interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus to clear his $800 million outstanding bills.

Bangladesh’s troubled power sector has witnessed a surge in power outage after Adani halved its production just days before.

On Sunday, Bangladesh could not meet the demand of 12,100MW at noon, logging a shortfall of 647MW in supply.

Besides Adani, some of the country’s major power plants are either fully or partially closed at present due to fuel shortages.

The list of power plants completely out of operation includes 1,150MW coal-based Matarbari power plant, gas-based 584MW Meghnaghat Unique power plant, and 583MW gas-based Summit-Meghnaghat power plant.

The power plants in partial operation include 1,224MW coal-based SS power plant, and 1,234MW coal-based Rampal power plant.

The India media on the day reported that Adani did not demand full payment of $800–$850 million in seven days.

The media reports quoted Adani saying in a statement, ‘Cooperating fully and collaborating with BPDB to resolve any issue.’