Bangladesh: Analyzing Hasina era Adani Power Deal

[UKBengali]

The argument was always the need. When we have 3 brand new plants not operating to their full potential resulting in excess capacity over demand.

If you can't understand that, it's your failure.

You have debunked absolutely nothing.

That is a separate point.

Adani is supplying power much cheaper than BD oil based plants and if those coal fired power stations come back online, BD can stop using more of those really expensive oil based power stations. They simply need to be decommissioned asap.

Originally Roopur first reactor was supposed to come online in 2023 and the second this year, but now it looks like no power will be supplied till end of 2025. Adani has met the delay here nicely.

Without this Adani power station over last 18 months, BD would have been in all kinds of trouble with electricity supply.

Maybe over the medium to long term it will be redundant but to plan for it all those years ago was not the worst idea.

 

[LeonBlack08]

Is that hydro power from Tripura ? If yes, availability and rates can't be same.
Can you link some article?

That's Hydro from Tripura.

Yes, availability probably wouldn't have been their but Bangladesh has chance to negotiate multiple other deals apart from this particular one from Adani, if we really needed to import from India or even Nepal or Bhutan. Bangladesh gave India transit corridor and could have negotiated these electricity imports as part of a package deal. There was so many opportunities apart from this Adani deal.

The problem is some people here defending Adani like he is their blood relative. I am for import from India if there is a need and we are paying fair prices. But in this particular case of Adani, clearly there was no need and the price was also higher when compared to local plants in max capacity.

 

[LeonBlack08]

Without this Adani power station over last 18 months, BD would have been in all kinds of trouble with electricity supply.

Maybe over the medium to long term it will be redundant but to plan for it all those years ago was not the worst idea.

Not quite.

Had Adani come online in 2019 as was originally promised, then you are right. We needed power then.

But, by the time Adani came online, payra and Rampal were all online for more than a year. So we had the capacity and wouldn't have struggled. We simply didn't utilize the max capacity available locally. Our local capacity was greater than demand.

 

[SoulSpokesman]

@LeonBlack08

You are assuming that there are 000s of MW of hydropower plants in Nep and Bhutan waiting to supply power to BD. Sorry to pour water ( no pun intended) on your dreams, but they are not. The ones that are coming up are committed to IND. Regards

 

[UKBengali]

Not quite.

Had Adani come online in 2019 as was originally promised, then you are right. We needed power then.

But, by the time Adani came online, payra and Rampal were all online. So we had the capacity and wouldn't have struggled. We simply didn't utilize the max capacity available locally. Our local capacity was greater than demand.

Problem was BD had no forex to pay for coal imports.

Maybe it could have somehow "found" the cash due to desperation but to get 1.5GW of power at deferred payments at this time was extremely helpful.

It is not like BD was paying monthly payments to Adani that it could have diverted to buying coal for these plants. BD literally paid nothing to Adani for a whole year while getting this power.

Overall and seeing the price was 12 Taka per kwh in fiscal 2023/2024 I don't think this was the worst decision but we still need to see the full contract details.

 

[LeonBlack08]

@LeonBlack08

You are assuming that there are 000s of MW of hydropower plants in Nep and Bhutan waiting to supply power to BD. Sorry to pour water ( no pun intended) on your dreams, but they are not. The ones that are coming up are committed to IND. Regards

I am not assuming. There are active proposals to Bangladesh from both Nepal and Bhutan. Google is your friend. India had not been allowing corridor for power grid even though they are enjoying transit through Bangladesh. But this is a whole another topic, I do not want to delve into it.

 

[UKBengali]

7.7 Taka per kwh for each unit of hydroelectric power from Nepal.
No infrastructure costs and no pollution.
This is just the start and the Adani deal is going to be only a small part of the BD-India energy co-operation.

In 10 years time, NE India, BD, Nepal and Bhutan would have their own linked energy grid where one country could produce power and be able to supply to any of the others.


https://kathmandupost.com/national/...ladesh-sign-trilateral-electricity-trade-deal


"Nepal, India, and Bangladesh have signed a trilateral agreement to trade 40 megawatts of electricity.

The historic deal, signed in Kathmandu on Thursday, for the first time allows Nepal to sell electricity to a third country. Thus far, Nepal’s energy trade had been taking place only with India, the southern neighbour.

Nepal is expected to sell 144,000 MWh (megawatt-hour) of electricity in five months—mid-June to mid-November—every year at the rate of 6.4 US cents a unit."

 

[Cryptonian]

That's Hydro from Tripura.

Yes, availability probably wouldn't have been their but Bangladesh has chance to negotiate multiple other deals apart from this particular one from Adani, if we really needed to import from India or even Nepal or Bhutan. Bangladesh gave India transit corridor and could have negotiated these electricity imports as part of a package deal. There was so many opportunities apart from this Adani deal.

The problem is some people here defending Adani like he is their blood relative. I am for import from India if there is a need and we are paying fair prices. But in this particular case of Adani, clearly there was no need and the price was also higher when compared to local plants in max capacity.

You are also disingenuously comparing the price of two totally different deal to create sensationalism. Tripura, Bhutan, Nepal, All of that is inconsistent Hydro power.
India itself can use all that without worrying about availability, because it's just 0.5% or even less of it's total consumption, hence load can be distributed in the grid. BD opted for coal based import due to reliability. It's the best man made source after your gas plants.

Now from now onwards you should only debate over price of BD plants vs Adani plants. Don't bring hydro into discussion without knowing your own requirements.

 

[BananaRepublic]

That is a separate point.

Adani is supplying power much cheaper than BD oil based plants and if those coal fired power stations come back online, BD can stop using more of those really expensive oil based power stations. They simply need to be decommissioned asap.

Originally Roopur first reactor was supposed to come online in 2023 and the second this year, but now it looks like no power will be supplied till end of 2025. Adani has met the delay here nicely.

Without this Adani power station over last 18 months, BD would have been in all kinds of trouble with electricity supply.

Maybe over the medium to long term it will be redundant but to plan for it all those years ago was not the worst idea.

Plus Adani supplied it on credit!

 

[LeonBlack08]

You are also disingenuously comparing the price of two totally different deal to create sensationalism. Tripura, Bhutan, Nepal, All of that is inconsistent Hydro power.
India itself can use all that without worrying about availability, because it's just 0.5% or even less of it's total consumption, hence load can be distributed in the grid. BD opted for coal based import due to reliability. It's the best man made source after your gas plants.

Now from now onwards you should only debate over price of BD plants vs Adani plants. Don't bring hydro into discussion without knowing your own requirements.

I have never compared the price of hydro with coal.

Rather pointed out we could have gone for those options if we needed to import from India or any other country.

If you have read all the posts in this thread you will see that the comparison was always amongst coal based plants and the argument was about whether Bangladesh needed it or not, since we have excess capacity locally.

 

[LeonBlack08]

Problem was BD had no forex to pay for coal imports.

Maybe it could have somehow "found" the cash due to desperation but to get 1.5GW of power at deferred payments at this time was extremely helpful.

It is not like BD was paying monthly payments to Adani that it could have diverted to buying coal for these plants. BD literally paid nothing to Adani for a whole year while getting this power.

Overall and seeing the price was 12 Taka per kwh in fiscal 2023/2024 I don't think this was the worst decision but we still need to see the full contract details.

If BD wanted, it could have secured coal import contract for long term with deferred payment facility as well. This is not something unheard of, rather a fairly common practice for large contracts in international trade.

Bangladesh could have used that to operate the coal plants to it's max capacity.

Anyway, we can pick this up when review is completed. But in all likelihood Bangladesh will now have to stick with this agreement whether we need it or not, because getting out will be costlier than just living with it. Unless there's some serious corruption which we are unaware of and can be proven in court.

 

[Fallstuff]

Hasina's Power minister hangs out with her son Joy when he is in Virginia, USA. Everyone knows how much money Summit Power group in Bangladesh made under Awami League.
The entire Awami League has now literally moved to India, making the case India is the resort or last resort for Awami League !!
So yes, Hasina did sign away this power deal to get support from extremist Modi, there is no better way of saying this !!

 

[BananaRepublic]

Hasina's Power minister hangs out with her son Joy when he is in Virginia, USA. Everyone knows how much money Summit Power group in Bangladesh made under Awami League.
The entire Awami League has now literally moved to India, making the case India is the resort or last resort for Awami League !!
So yes, Hasina did sign away this power deal to get support from extremist Modi, there is no better way of saying this !!

More unsubstantiated nonsense!

 

[Musings]

More unsubstantiated nonsense!

Any reason why you
Not showing your country flags?

 

[Musings]

I didn’t know he cared about India so much.

Maybe “dil hain hindustani”?

His levels of arguments only work within a small section of BD.

They will not stack up at the international arena.

What makes you the international spokesperson for the majority? Now discuss the topic and not the poster……