Norochcholai Power Plant to operate at full capacity from next week

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Ceylon Electricity Board said that the generator at the Norochcholai Power Plant that was shut down for maintenance will be added to the National Grid on the 6th or 7th of January 2023.

General Manager of the CEB Engineer Rohan Seneviratne speaking to News 1st said that a coal shipment is scheduled to reach Sri Lanka next week, and thereafter the Norochcholai Power Plant will operate at full capacity.

He said that thereafter the need of using fuel power plants for electricity generation will be considered.

One generator at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant was shut down on the 22nd of December citing early maintenance and resulting in the loss of 300 MW to the national power grid.

The Ministry of Power and Energy said that a shipment of 90,000 MT of Crude Oil will each Sri Lanka next week, enabling the continuous operations at the Sapugaskand Oil Refinery.

In the midst of all this, a proposal is made to once again increase the electricity tariff.

According to the country's Power & Energy Minister, the objective of this tariff hike is to cover the cost of providing a continuous supply of electricity.

One of the scenarios presented by the CEB engineers will be used for this purpose, and according to the Minister the generation plan is as follows:

27% from hydro-power
28% from Coal
13% from Diesel and Furnace Oil
2% Wind Power 
12% from Private Diesel or Furnace Oil Power Plants.
13% from Solar power plants
4% from rooftop solar panels

The CEB Employees' Union alleges that this is an attempt to reduce the low-cost production using coal and to increase the production that would cost more.

According to them, it only costs Rs. 47/- to generate one unit of electricity using coal.

However, if Diesel is used to generating one unit of electricity, the cost would be north of Rs. 100/-.

The cost to generate one unit of electricity using furnace oil is Rs. 65/-.

Therefore, an additional cost will have to be borne after electricity generation using coal is reduced, and the missing capacity is sourced using fuel and from privately-owned power plants.

One generator at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant was shut down citing early maintenance, however, the decision came due to the delay in procuring coal.

The electricity capacity that was lost by shutting down the generator is now being sourced from the West Coast Power Plant in Kerawalapitiya which uses Furnace Oil to generate electricity.

If this generator is shut down until the date that a coal shipment is due to arrive in Sri Lanka, the additional cost to provide electricity is a whopping Rs. 3.2 Billion.

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