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Fuel and power crisis: CEB thermal plants at risk of stoppage

03 Jul 2022

 
  • CEB needs furnace oil or diesel within two weeks
  • Use of diesel for generation stopped due to lack of supply
By Maheesha Mudugamuwa   Thermal power stations run by the State-owned Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) are at risk of coming to a halt in mid-July unless diesel or furnace oil supplies resume within the next two weeks, The Sunday Morning learns. It is learnt that the CEB has now completely stopped operations of all diesel power plants as its diesel stocks have dried up, and the remaining furnace oil is said to be sufficient only for the next two weeks. The low stocks heighten the risk of the CEB running out of generating capacity, while one unit (approximately 300 MW) at the Norochcholai Lakvijaya Power Plant (900 MW combined) has gone offline for scheduled maintenance – a process that could take up to two months to complete. As of Friday (1), 31.5% of the total electricity demand was generated by hydropower owned by the CEB and 28.8% was supplied by thermal coal. Thermal oil generation was at 20.2% and thermal oil generation by Independent Power Producers (IPP) was at 12.8%. When contacted by The Sunday Morning, CEB Chairman N.S. Ilangakoon said the CEB had furnace oil stocks sufficient for two weeks and by that time it expected to receive a shipment of furnace oil or diesel.          “We don’t use diesel plants. With hydro, we are managing the remaining furnace oil stocks for next two weeks,” he said. However, the furnace oil requirement of the Barge Mounted Plant, Sapugaskanda A and B, Uthuru Janani Power Plant, and West Coast Combined Cycle stands at 280 MT, 300 MT, 300 MT, 120 MT, and 1,400 MT respectively. The diesel requirement of Kelani GT 7 Gas turbine, Sojitz and other private plants stands at 400 MT, 1,500 MT, 600 MT, and 120 MT respectively. Earlier the CEB said that there had been a shortage of around 300 MW of electricity and the situation had worsened during the past few months due to the extreme difficulty in purchasing the required petroleum fuel, especially furnace oil.    Initially, the Power and Energy Ministry had been planning to meet the deficit from hydro, solar, wind, and diesel power, but the engineers attached to the CEB had stressed that the existing water resources should not be used excessively to generate electricity as future rainfall could not be predicted. However, the CEB Chairman stressed that the Board made the policy decisions and called on engineers to provide alternative solutions for steady power supply if they considered the use of hydropower as wasteful.     


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