- Norochcholai supplies 41% of generation
- Conserving hydropower as much as possible: CEB
- Challenges in supplying south; 30 MW moved
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is pushing all dispatchable thermal and oil power plants in its inventory that are in operation to meet the surge in power demand due to the prevailing hot weather conditions in Sri Lanka, CEB Spokesman and Additional General Manager (Generation) Dhammika Navaratne told The Sunday Morning.
This, as Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said on Thursday (20) that the daily demand for electricity may exceed 50 GWh, with a peak of 49.53 GWh recorded on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the CEB also moved to address longstanding challenges in supplying demand for the southern region.
Navaratne told The Sunday Morning that all three generators at the Lakvijaya Power Plant in Norochcholai were currently in operation and nearly 41% of the total power requirement of the country was currently being fulfilled by coal.
“We are managing the situation while keeping hydropower generation at its lowest due to the low water levels at hydropower reservoirs. At present we are running all three power plants in Norochcholai, but in another 10 days’ time, one generator has to be stopped for maintenance due to a vibration issue,” Navaratne said.
According to the CEB, on Friday (21), the total net energy generated by the CEB was 47.47 GWh, with a peak demand of 2,212.9 MW.
The demand has been fulfilled by CEB hydro, thermal coal, thermal oil, wind, SPP solar, biomass, mini hydro, wind, and IPP thermal oil by generating 6.41 GWh, 19.48 GWh, 8.75 GWh, 1.15 GWh, 2.22 GWh, 0.27 GWh, 2.38 GWh, 0.69 GWh, and 6.13 GWh respectively.
Nevertheless, the CEB stated that there would be an uninterrupted power supply during the ongoing extremely dry weather conditions.
However, in a media release issued by the CEB last week, the State-Owned Enterprise stressed that it was facing challenges in supplying electricity to the southern part of the country owing to lack of generation in the southern region and constraints in the transmission network.
It is stated that when the CEB experienced this issue in earlier years, the remedies adopted comprised acquiring supplementary power for the southern region and expediting construction of new transmission lines.
This year, the same issue has once again created challenges, and while actions are being taken to procure supplementary power, it takes a considerable timespan to complete a competitive tender process to do so.
As such, it is learnt that the Minister of Power and Energy, together with the CEB top management headed by the CEB General Manager had taken a decision on Thursday (20) to make use of CEB-owned 1 MWx30 diesel generators installed at Kolonnawa and Thulhiriya by shifting them to the southern region and installing them there to address the power supply challenges faced in that part of the country, the CEB stated.
The technical feasibility has dictated that the most suitable location for these 30 generators of 30 MW capacity is the Hambantota Grid Substation, enabling the operation of all 30 generators at one location.
The decision of shifting the 30 generators to the Hambantota Grid Substation has been put into practice and ultimately materialised successfully on 31 March, it is stated.
Meanwhile, when inquiries were made by The Sunday Morning regarding the purchase of supplementary power, CEB Spokesman Navaratne said the proposal had now been put on hold due to several issues.
“Purchasing supplementary power for the southern region is cheaper than generating it via CEB-owned power plants as there are efficiency issues in some old power plants,” Navaratne opined.
However, Navaratne would not reveal how much additional cost the CEB was incurring in running all available thermal plans to meet the increased demand.
Attempts to contact the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Treasury regarding the additional cost incurred for increased thermal power generation failed.