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Norochcholai saves Lanka from power cuts
Saturday, 23 June 2012 - 10:48 AM SL Time
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If not for the 17 per cent power contribution to the national grid by the first coal fired power plant at Norochcholai, the debt ridden Ceylon Electricity Board either had to pump out millions of rupees to buy electricity from expensive independent power producers or impose power cuts.
CEB Engineers told The Island that the coal powered plant in Norochcholai, after a pathetic performance in the first quarter of the year, had come good in a crunch period to safeguard the CEB. However, the engineers warned the situation was quite serious with no rains expected over catchments till September end.
Engineers said that their team at Norochcholai was doing their utmost to make sure that there aren t any problems in the plant. `The pressure is too much on the employees of the Norochcholai Plant as they know any breakdown at the plant would result in CEB having to purchase expensive power or impose black outs,` they added.
Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka was on record that there won t be power cuts even if the hydro generated electricity dropped drastically.
CEB Chairman Professor Wimaladharma Abeywickrema told the media that any damage to a major power plant would lead to power cuts in certain areas, a point this paper had been highlighting for more than a year, contrary to some seniors at the Power and Energy Ministry. When contacted on Wednesday, he said that he was attending an important meeting.
Under the first phase of the project, Norochcholai plant provides around 300MW to the national grid.
The second and third phases, once completed would generate another 600 MW to the national grid.
The entire Project will be fully commissioned by 2014 with the completion of its third stage. Sri Lanka uses around 28 GW hours of power daily and the contribution through thermal power is more than 80 per cent.
With no rains, the Board would lose over Rs. 100 million daily.
Officials said that there had been immense obstacles to the development of the country due to the lack of consensus. It was evident when considering the history of the Norochcholai Power Plant Project, which had been repeatedly put off for political expediency.
It was clear that none came forward to implement the project especially during the first half of the 2000 decade.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his message, during the commencement of the second phase of the project, too expressed similar remarks.
The government of China has provided US$ 455 million for this task which was initiated in July 2007. The government has allocated Rs.300 million.
Meanwhile, the total energy need stood at 32.01134 GWh by Wednesday, thermal 27.29299 GWh, 85.3 per cent and hydro 4.71835 GWh or 14.7 per cent, this is the lowest hydro contribution in the recent past.
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