India's Adani Power Jharkhand (APJL), a fully-owned subsidiary of Adani Power, has ceased half of its power supply to Bangladesh due to outstanding bills totalling $846 million. According to data from Power Grid Bangladesh PLC, the Adani plant reduced its supply on Thursday night.

Bangladesh experienced a power shortfall exceeding 1,600 megawatts (MW) during the night between Thursday and Friday, as the 1,496 MW plant is now producing only 700 MW from a single unit, the newspaper noted.

Previously, Adani had sent a letter to the power secretary, urging the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) to settle its outstanding dues by October 30.

The letter, dated October 27, indicated that if the bills were not cleared, the company would have no choice but to take remedial action under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) by suspending power supply on October 31. The company mentioned that the PDB had not provided a letter of credit (LC) for $170.03 million from Bangladesh Krishi Bank, nor had it settled the outstanding amount of $846 million.

The newspaper quoted a PDB official who stated that while they had previously cleared a portion of the dues, Adani had been charging more since July than in earlier months.

The official explained that the PDB has been making weekly payments of around $18 million, while the charges have exceeded $22 million, resulting in an increase in due payments. He added that last week's payment was submitted to Krishi Bank, but the bank was unable to open a letter of credit against the payment due to a shortage of dollars.

Regarding the additional payment, the official mentioned that when the PDB inquired about coal pricing in February of the previous year, they had signed a supplementary agreement that required Adani to quote coal prices lower than those of other coal-fired power plants.