Norochcholai continues to suffer breakdowns when hydro-power is limited

One of the three units of the Chinese- built Norochcholai Coal Power Plant has suffered another breakdown on August 08 placing much pressure on generating electricity in Sri Lanka especially at a time hydro-power generation has been severely affected due a drought.

As a result of the breakdown, only one unit of the power plant is operating at the moment and it adds 300 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera assured that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will supply uninterrupted electricity island-wide.

However, he earlier said that electricity needs to be purchased in order to ensure an uninterrupted supply from August 15 onwards as the operations at Samanalawewa hydroelectric power plant stand to be interrupted by August 16 owing to the move to release water from the water body to the Udawalawe Reservoir.

As many parts of the country are going through a drought for several months, farmers struggle to find water for their cultivation. They have been protesting especially in the areas in Southern Sri Lanka demanding that water be released from the Samanalawewa Reservoir.

Meanwhile, the local authorities said this week that if the Victoria Hydropower Plant, the largest hydroelectric power station in the country, is used at its maximum capacity to generate electricity, its capacity will only last for 30 days.

Though the water was released to produce electricity with a capacity of less than 01 gigawatt hours in the recent past, 6.5 million cubic meters of water will be released from the reservoir for the production of 2.5 gigawatt hours of electricity from August 09 due to the breakdown of one of the generators in the Norochcholai Power Plant.

One of the major reasons behind recent electricity tariff increases was also the malfunctioning power plant of Norochcholai.

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 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. Since the plant was commissioned in December 2011, it experienced more than 20 breakdowns. 

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 is reeling from a severe economic crisis and going through a drought, breaking down of Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant would only aggravate the issue of providing uninterrupted power supply to the nation.

Regionally, Sri Lanka has achieved the highest access to electricity of 100 percent together with Bhutan and Maldives by 2020. However, maintaining a continuous power supply in Sri Lanka has been challenged due to its dependence on imported fuel oil and imported coal to generate electricity.  

To avoid frequent breakdowns at Norochcholai, save foreign currency from flowing out of the country on fuel and coal imports and in order to provide an uninterrupted power supply, many proposals have been made over the years. The country has also adopted various methods to generate power using renewable energy sources.

At present, Sri Lanka generates electricity using thermal power which includes coal and fuel oil, hydropower and other non-conventional renewable energy sources such as solar power and wind power.

In the past, many talks have been made in Sri Lanka about being self-sufficient in electricity and then exporting power supply to India. It was in 1976 that the then Power and Irrigation Minister of Sri Lanka Maitripala Senanayake spoke of the possibility of exporting electricity to India when the entire Mahaweli Diversion Programme was completed in 30 years. The project was completed but Sri Lanka was never able to export electricity to any country due to a host of reasons.  

Sri Lanka being an island and not sharing any borders with India has also made it not easy for the two countries to share power. India already excels in Cross-Border Electricity Trade as it trades electricity with neighbours Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The existing electricity trade agreements are bilateral and have benefited the participating nations.

Plans to interlink electricity grids between the countries were first mooted over a decade ago, with the governments signing a pact in 2010. At that time, the project was estimated to have a cost of about 40 Billion Indian rupees and was expected to facilitate exchange of about 1,000 MW of power.

Since the Sri Lankan Government could not afford thermal fuel to provide uninterrupted power supply, due to limited hydro power generation and frequent breakdowns at Norochcholai Power Plant, the local authorities realised the benefits of integrating into a combined power grid along with India. This would instinctively come forward to rescue the country from a recurring power crisis.

In April last year, India and Sri Lanka said that they resumed talks on linking their electricity grids.

The Sri Lankan government has now prioritised regional energy integration with grid connectivity between Sri Lanka and India and Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara recently said that this is to be implemented by 2030.

In July during President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said that the two leaders “adopted a vision document for our Economic Partnership” to strengthen maritime, air, energy and people-to-people connectivity, to accelerate mutual cooperation in tourism, power, trade, higher education, and skill development.

The projects to connect the power grids through undersea cables and the oil pipeline were expected to cost about USD 4 billion in total.

The two leaders also expressed support to fully implement an India-backed scheme to share power with Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamil population in the island’s north and east provinces.