Coal shortage cuts Adani supply to 500-600MW

Power supply from Adani Power’s Godda plant in India has fallen to around 500-600MW amid a coal shortage, adding further pressure to Bangladesh’s already strained power grid.
The situation worsened after the plant’s 800MW Unit-1 tripped on Wednesday. Adani has informed the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) that the unit will take four days to return to operation, according to a BPDB official. 
“Power supply from the Adani power plant has reduced due to coal shortage. The shutdown of Unit-1 has further reduced the supply,” said Md Zahurul Islam, member (production) of the BPDB.
He said Adani had informed the BPDB that Unit-1 would take four days to resume generation from Wednesday.
The plant’s supply fell to 509MW at 1pm on Wednesday and remained between 500MW and 600MW thereafter. At 6am on Thursday, the plant was supplying 504MW to Bangladesh.
According to the Power Grid Bangladesh (PGB) National Load Dispatch Centre, Adani’s peak-hour supply was 834.14MW on Tuesday, with the reduced generation attributed to coal shortages.
The plant supplied a maximum of 822.58MW on Monday, against its 1,496MW availability factor. Before the coal shortage began affecting generation, peak-hour supply stood at 1,323.06MW on Sunday and 1,308.87MW on Saturday.
The fall in Adani’s supply has added to pressure on the national grid, as generation from several locally installed gas- and coal-fired power plants has also declined.
Load shedding exceeded 2,000MW on both 29 and 30 September as Adani and several other large independent power producers failed to meet demand.
The Godda plant has two 800MW units, giving it a total installed capacity of 1,600MW. Bangladesh is scheduled to receive power from the plant at an availability factor of 1,496MW.
The plant has faced repeated disruptions to its power supply to Bangladesh in recent months, mainly because of coal availability and transportation problems.
Earlier, Adani reduced daytime generation amid difficulties in transporting coal to Godda. The company informed Bangladesh that railway congestion and loading restrictions were affecting the movement of coal rakes to the plant, limiting generation during off-peak hours.
The latest disruption has been compounded by the shutdown of Unit-1. With the 800MW unit expected to remain offline for four days, supply from Godda could remain significantly below normal unless coal availability improves and the unit returns to operation as scheduled.
Power supply from the plant has become increasingly uncertain during periods of high demand, with Adani previously citing weather conditions, rail congestion and coal availability as factors affecting generation.