Norochcholai Power Plant suffers another breakdown adding pressure on power supply

The Norochcholai Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant suffered yet another breakdown last week forcing the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to pump more funds to ensure continued power supply.
 
Due to the breakdown, the CEB incurred an additional cost of over Rs.90 million a day to provide continued power supply to the people who have not yet recovered from increased tariffs.  
 
On February 15, the CEB announced that it has received the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) to increase electricity tariffs by 66%. This was a major blow to the citizens who are already going through a severe economic crisis.
 
In accordance with the new electricity tariff revision, the rate charged per one unit of electricity for the first 30 units in the domestic category, is increased to Rs. 30 from the previous rate of Rs. 8.
 
It has also been proposed to increase the Rs. 10 charged per unit for the units consumed between 31-60 up to Rs. 37 and for consumption block of 61-90 units up to Rs. 42. Earlier, the charge per unit for the units consumed between 61-90 prevailed at Rs. 16. 

One of the major reasons behind this tariff increase can be identified as the malfunctioning power plant of Norochcholai.
 
Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera last week announced that the Chinese-built power plant is inoperative due to a breakdown of the third generating unit.
 
He added that the third generating unit was supposed to undergo major overhaul maintenance in April.
 
In a tweet, he said CEB-owned diesel and fuel oil power plants will be utilized to ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity until Unit 3 of the Norochcholai power plant is reconnected to the national grid.
 
“There will be no power cuts due to the breakdown at Norochcholai ,” Minister Wijesekera assured.
 
However,  CEB sources said the breakdown of the Unit Three of the Plant Complex in Norochcholai 270 MW intake of the 300MW will cost an additional minimum Rs. 20 a unit due to thermal power generation.
 
“It will cost the CEB Rs. 96 million extra a day, while the Norochcholai machine is out of order,” they said.
 
Meanwhile, a senior Electrical Engineer said that the CEB had released Rs. 600 million for power purchasing from privately owned companies. “They should have had proper plans rather than wasting money at times like this, the Board lacks management skills ,” he added.
 
Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, Sri Lanka's first-ever coal powered electricity generating unit that was built from Chinese funds, has suffered frequent breakdowns causing heavy financial losses to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) over the years.
 
The construction of the Chinese funded USD 1.35 billion power plant which is also known as Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant was carried out by the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and was completed in three phases by 2014.
 
The first phase of 300 MW was commissioned in 2011, and the second and third phase in 2014. The total power generation capacity of this plant is 900 Megawatt with an estimated cost of the project being USD 1.35 billion.
 
Since the plant was commissioned in December 2011,  it experienced more than 20 breakdowns. As a result, the CEB incurred significant financial loss.
 
Former Power and Renewable Energy Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera once alleged that the power plant was built with substandard and outdated material and is well below international standards.
 
At a time when Sri Lanka was going through a severe economic crisis and frequent power cuts, Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant went through several breakdowns placing a heavy strain on the economy and compelling the CEB to extend one-hour daily power cuts.  The breakdown in August, 2022 resulted in three-hour extended power cuts.
 
One of the latest shutdowns was announced on June 17, 2022 when a generator at the Coal Power Plant was shut down for essential maintenance.
 
According to the CEB, Unit 2 was out of operation for at least 75 days; consequently, the electricity supplied by the coal power plant to the national grid dropped from 45 percent to 30 percent.
 
Due to the latest shutdown, the national grid lost 270MW and thermal power plants had to increase generation to meet the demand.
 
Unit 3 of the Norochcholai power plant, which broke down at the end of last year, was only fixed and reconnected back to the National grid by December.
Soon after the power plant was operationalised in 2011, the power station ceased operations due to a leak in one of the thousands of tubes carrying water between the boiler on July 22, 2012.
 
The country was put into controlled regional power outages to cope with the missing generation. On August 8, 2012 a tripping of the powerline from Lakvijaya caused the power station to cease operations.
 
In August 2020, a ‘technical fault’ at the plant caused a nationwide blackout and power rationing. Despite a previous expert committee having recommended it as far back as February 2017, the plant still didn't have an auxiliary (external) power supply mechanism to keep the units alive in the event of a grid failure. Having one can facilitate a controlled shutdown of plants so they can be restarted without waiting for three to four days.