Boiler Failure at Adani's Godda Plant Cuts Bangladesh Power Supply in Half, Deepens Load-Shedding

One of the two 800-megawatt units at Adani Power's Godda plant in Jharkhand, India, tripped late Wednesday, September 9, after a boiler feed pump overheated and forced an automatic shutdown, according to Md Zahurul Islam, the Bangladesh Power Development Board's (BPDB) member for generation.

Generation from the plant collapsed from about 1,430 MW to roughly 758 MW around 11 p.m. that night, according to National Load Despatch Centre data cited by The Business Standard and Ajker Patrika. Islam told The Business Standard the feed unit "malfunctioned and became excessively hot," forcing the full shutdown in the early hours of Thursday, September 10.

The boiler needs about 48 hours to cool before technicians can even begin repairs, BPDB sources told Prothom Alo, meaning it could take three to four days before the unit is back online. Adani Power did not comment when asked by the Times of India.

Bad Timing

The outage hit right as the Godda plant was finally recovering from an unrelated problem. Generation had been throttled since August 7 after storms disrupted coal shipments to the plant, Prothom Alo reported. By late August, output had climbed back to around 900 MW during the day and 1,200 MW at evening peak. By Wednesday evening, September 9, it had crossed 1,400 MW, according to BPDB sources cited by Prothom Alo and tob.news.

Then the boiler failed. The Business Standard notes that even at full output, the Godda plant's real generation capacity runs closer to 1,496 MW rather than its 1,600 MW nameplate rating, underscoring how thin Bangladesh's margin already was before this fault.

A Grid Already Stretched Thin

This is not an isolated problem. Ajker Patrika reported that a unit at another plant, RNPL, also went offline Thursday, adding a combined 1,200 MW shortfall on top of existing shortages. A 450 MW gas-fired plant in Ashuganj, which had been producing 319 MW, shut down the same day due to a technical fault, per Ajker Patrika. At least seven power plants in the Dhaka region were shut or running below capacity because of gas shortages, with one plant each down in Chattogram, Cumilla and Mymensingh.

Separately, one unit at the Payra plant in Patuakhali has been offline for days on a technical fault, a second Patuakhali plant is short of coal, and the Rampal plant in Bagerhat has cut output for the same reason, according to Prothom Alo and tob.news.

The numbers show the strain. Ajker Patrika reported a national deficit of 3,557 MW at 3 p.m. Thursday, with demand at 16,345 MW against generation of 12,788 MW. By 3 a.m. Friday, The Business Standard reported the gap had narrowed slightly but remained severe: 12,907 MW supplied against 15,776 MW demanded, a shortfall of 2,869 MW.

The practical result, per Ajker Patrika: urban areas seeing outages up to four times a day, and rural areas going without power for seven to ten hours.

The Bigger Picture, and a Live Dispute

Prothom Alo has tied Bangladesh's broader energy strain to the wider global energy crunch that followed the Middle East war which began February 28, 2026, disrupting fuel supplies the country depends on. The Times of India likewise cited disruptions to energy supplies from West Asia. Those are real supply-chain pressures, not excuses invented after the fact.

Bangladesh's reliance on Godda has been contentious before this outage. Prothom Alo has previously reported allegations that Adani has been overcharging the Power Development Board by roughly Tk 50-60 billion a year, a claim tied to the plant's pricing structure under the 2017 power purchase agreement. That is a disputed allegation, not an established fact, and it is separate from this week's mechanical failure. There is no indication in any of the reporting that the boiler fault itself was anything other than an equipment malfunction.

The structural challenge for Dhaka is significant: a single foreign plant supplying up to a quarter of national demand, combined with chronic domestic gas and coal shortages, leaves the grid with almost no cushion when any one piece breaks. A government report cited by Prothom Alo on September 8 projected only partial relief by 2027, more in 2028, and a crisis-free grid not until 2030. Until then, BPDB officials say the Godda unit is expected back online within three to four days of the September 9 failure, assuming no further complications during the boiler repair.