Norochcholai Phase II:

More power for national grid soon

By Gamini Warushamana

Construction work on buildings and installing of generators in the second phase of the Lakwijaya coal power plant in Norochcholai has been completed and a test run of the plant was done recently, said Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), General Manager Shavindranath Fernando.

With the completion of Phase II which has a capacity of 2 x 300 MW, the total capacity of the Norochcholai power plant has increased to 900 MW. The project was due to be completed by May this year.

Fernando said that the construction work in the second phase was done carefully taking into account the problems encountered in Phase I.

“We had to ensure every step was perfectly completed and therefore, it took time.

During the test runs there were no major problems. We can't give an exact date for the commissioning of the plant but it will be soon,” Fernando said.

Phase I of the project with a capacity of 300 MW was commissioned in March 2010.

The frequent breakdown of generators from the day of commissioning sparked serious criticism over the Chinese technology used in the project.

Investment in Phase-I of the project was US $450 million and investment in phase-II is US $891 million. The project has been funded by a soft loan from Exim Bank of China.

Fernando said that issues related to the transmission line across the Puttalam lagoon will be sorted out and there is a progress in the discussions with fishery societies.

Analysts said that completion of the project and the addition of 600 MW to the national grid will ease CEB's burden of high cost thermal power generation. The weighted average generation cost is expected to decline with the addition of the 600 MW.

CEB sources said that generation cost per unit has increased significantly this year as a result of declined hydro capacity due to the prevailing drought.

The weighted average generation cost per unit increased to Rs. 24.37 compared to Rs. 17.70 in 2013.

However, the Lakvijaya coal power plant has reduced the burden of the CEB by contributing 18.9 percent of the generation mix according to the latest statistics of the CEB. If 300 MW from coal power was not available the unit cost would have been much higher, analysts said.