Chunnakam power plant closure:

Appeal Court grants interim relief

With the order of indefinite closure and eviction of employees issued by the Mallakam Magistrate on January 27 against the Northern Power Plant in Chunnakam, being vacated by the Court of Appeal recently, the power plant re-opened for essential maintenance and the employees returned to work, a company official said.

"We brought to the notice of the Court of Appeal that the order issued by the Mallakam Magistrate on January 27, was in contravention of the Law.

Following our application, the Court of Appeal granted interim relief restoring Northern Power Plant total access and undisturbed possession while allowing authorities to carry on the testing, which had been stalled since the closure. This was in effect from Monday (April 6), with the Mallakam Magistrate's Court and Jaffna High Court being duly informed of this order.

The Court of Appeal issued notice on all 11 Respondents (Applicants in the original case) to appear before Court, when the case is taken up again," Northern Power (Pvt) Ltd, parent company - MTD Walkers PLC Director and CEO Lal Perera said.

Earlier on February 20, the Jaffna High Court allowed the Northern Power Company's Revision Application to restore the status quo on the eviction of employees from the Chunnakkam Power Plant, except generation.

However, due to confusion with regard to the interpretation of the language of the order, the plant was ordered to be closed again by the Registrar of the Mallakam Magistrate's Court.

The company is hopeful that its generation operation too would be allowed to recommence by Court, as it has right throughout maintained that the Chunnakam Power Plant run by Northern Power is in no way responsible for the water contamination issue that has caused hardship to the people of Jaffna.

Scientific evidence shows that the powerhouse of Northern Power Co (Pvt) Ltd is not in any way linked to the issue of ground water contamination in Jaffna, and that such baseless allegations have been fueled by parties with vested interests, an MTD Walkers official said.

"When the plant was set up in 2007, our main objective was to supply the electricity needs of Jaffna which was in darkness. As Northern Power Company (Pvt) Ltd, we deny outright these baseless charges raised by parties with vested interests and not a single allegation has been so far accepted by Courts or by any Government authority," Perera said.

"As all evidence presented to Court points directly to another location as being the source of contamination and the company is not in anyway liable for the said situation," he said.

Perera said that baseless allegations have been raised to mislead the people of Jaffna against the Northern Power Company (Pvt) Ltd, falsely claiming that the power plant at Chunnakkam (Jaffna) is causing the pollution of several wells two to three kms away from the plant.

The Northern Power Company launched construction work on the power plant in 2007 amidst the height of the conflict when no company or person was willing to even venture into the North, let alone build a power plant, taking risks to provide the much needed power to the people of Jaffna, he said.

Power generation commenced around May 2009 and a large population which had suffered severe hardships for over 15 years, had electricity in their homes.

"We were the company that contributed the major amount of power at that time as there was no other source and because Jaffna was not connected to the national grid until about 2012. ," he added.

The power plant is operated with all environmental licences and approvals issued on an annual basis with quarterly checks carried out by the licensing authorities.

"Unfortunately, the allegation is that waste oil from the plant is discharged to the ground and that this was causing the pollution of wells that are so many kilometres away. Our waste oil is collected in tanks and sold to third parties who take it away and nothing is discharged into the ground," Perera said. "Waste oil fetches a good price as it is used for firing furnaces and we would be deprived of revenue by discharging it to the ground as alleged. If we can earn extra profits by selling waste oil, why would a commercial venture such as ours throw away valuable oil?," he queried.

"Unfortunately the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) and the Public Health Inspector (PHI) who are not specialists in this field of engineering make ludicrous allegations that oil is discharged by us with absolutely no form of evidence to support their claim.

Their claims are based purely on hearsay and without any scientific methodology being employed to identify the root cause of the contamination and by whom," Perera said.

It was also highlighted that due to the fact that Jaffna has been connected to the national grid, the power plant is being used mostly during the peak load times and as such, with the power plant operating only for a few hours, there will not be waste oil volumes significant enough to affect wells three kilometress away.

"We wish to reassert that Northern Power Company (Pvt) Ltd along with its parent company, MTD Walkers is always committed towards working in the interest of all stakeholders while maintaining the highest standards of corporate ethics and good governance," he added.