27 March 2021 12:00 am Views - 144
By Sandun A. Jayasekera
The two gas and steam turbines at the Kelanitissa Power plant which broke down on July 19, 2019 would be re-started by mid April after a full overhauling, easing the risk of power outage this year, CEB Chairman, Engineer Vijitha Herath said.
“Our preliminary investigations have revealed that technical as well as human error has led to the power outage. The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the repair and re-start of the two plants as a number of companies from Dubai, Singapore and India were involved in the overhauling and repairing of the steam and gas turbines. However, we have also found that there were shortcomings on the part of foreign companies who attended to the repair work. That is why we appointed a committee to go into the issue,” Mr. Herath stressed. If any official of the CEB is found to be responsible for the break down, the CEB will not hesitate to take action against him or her notwithstanding the position held. Mr. Herath pointed out that the state owned power monopoly, the CEB, will not be able to prevent losses running to billions of rupees annually as long as it depends on thermal power.
To meet the ambitious target of the government to generate 80% of electricity from renewable energy, Mr. Herath said the CEB has planned to launch 700 ground mounted solar power projects with 100 Kws capacity in the rural areas. The Government grants a soft loan of Rs. 12 million for one project.
He added that Sri Lanka must turn to LNG, renewable energy or solar power for power generation to prevent losses as Sri Lanka has fully exhausted her water resources to generate hydropower, which is the cheapest green energy. Mr. Herath found fault with the Yahapalana government as it had failed to commission a single power plant during its tenure from 2015 to 2019, and that has created as power crisis in the country.
The CEB would launch a relief programme shortly to supply power to 100,000 families who are still without electricity to their abodes with the help of the Samurdhi campaign.