• Unit 2 repairs were to be completed and reconnected by mid Sept.
• Spares in SL; ordered without opening LCs through an open account
• CEB awaiting goods clearance from Sri Lanka Customs: Navamani

Unit 3 repairs to commence soon after completion of unit 2 overhaul   The reconnection of the 300 MW of generating unit 2 of the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai, which is currently undergoing a major overhaul, is facing further delays as the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is struggling to bring down the necessary spare parts due to several issues, including clearance from Sri Lanka Customs, The Sunday Morning learns. The spare parts required for the overhaul have been ordered not by opening Letters of Credit (LCs) but through an open account, as confirmed by CEB Additional General Manager (Generation) Andrew Navamani. He told The Sunday Morning on Friday (30) that they expected the issue to be resolved within the day (Friday) as the CEB had already received approval from the Finance Ministry and Department of Imports and Exports Control. According to him, the CEB is waiting for the clearance of goods from Sri Lanka Customs and once this is done, the necessary spares will be sent to Norochcholai to complete the ongoing overhaul. When asked whether the generator would be connected as scheduled, Navamani stressed that it was already behind schedule but hoped that it would soon be completed and connected to the grid. The unit 2 generator was shut down for a scheduled major overhaul on 18 June. Initially, the CEB planned to complete the ongoing major overhaul within 75 days and reconnect the generator to the national grid by 31 August. But in August the Board stated that the repairs would be delayed by two weeks and it would be reconnected by mid September as several employees had to stay away from work due to Covid-19. As of last week, the maintenance had been delayed by a month as per the initial schedule. Now, once again, the plant is facing delays as it is waiting for spares to complete the overhaul.   Payment issues?   The maintenance work is ongoing but there is a small delay in submitting payments for spare parts and as a result, the reconnection will be delayed a little longer, a senior engineer attached to the CEB told The Sunday Morning on condition of anonymity. As The Sunday Morning reliably learnt, approximately $ 12 million and € 270,000 were needed for spare parts and $ 9.1 million for service contracts. In June, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara told the media that the Government was trying to find the funds to import the spares, and if need be, they would be airlifted to Sri Lanka to expedite the process.   The unit 2 generator   The unit 2 generator of Lakvijaya was synchronised to the national grid on 24 January 2014. Up until 31 May 2022, unit 2 has been in operation for 61,972 hours and produced 16,088 GWh. After consuming auxiliary power, it has provided 14,512 GWh for the country. Every year this single machine contributes about 10-15% of the country’s demand. A Level A category overhaul of a 300 MW coal-fired steam power plant should be performed after four to six years of its operation, as per the manufacturer’s recommendation. However, the first Level B overhaul for unit 2 was done in August 2018 and it has been in operation for more than eight years from the first synchronising date, according to the CEB. As of Thursday (29), the coal power contribution to the national grid was only around 15.7% of the total energy generation, as currently only one generator is operating. The unit 3 generator too was shut down last week due to a steam leak. “Unit 3 will most probably be re-connected soon as there was no major repair,” the engineer said on Thursday.   Power cuts   At present, the majority of the country’s electricity is generated via hydropower, which is 39.8%, with the contributions from CEB thermal oil and Independent Power Producers (IPP) thermal oil at 15.2% and 16.2% respectively. With the widening of the power deficit in the national grid due to the reduction of coal-fired power in the national grid, the CEB has requested longer power cuts to be imposed. At present, the country is experiencing power cuts of two hours and 20 minutes daily, despite emergency power. However, as revealed by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the power cuts would have been longer than five hours if the CEB had not gone ahead with emergency power purchases. This decision has been criticised by experts, who claim that it is highly doubtful whether the CEB has enough funds to pay for expensive emergency power at present. The PUCSL however said that it had given approval for emergency power purchases from the IPP for a short period to make up for the shortfall due to the breakdown of unit 3 of Norochcholai Power Plant. PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said the scheduled power cuts would be maintained at two hours and 20 minutes per day, by depending more on thermal power plants. “Only one generator out of the three at the Norochcholai plant is currently working. One unit has been shut down for maintenance and another unit has broken down. As a result, the national grid has lost 550 MW. The CEB said that repairing unit 3 will commence on Wednesday (28) and be completed by Monday (3). The other unit, which is under maintenance, will also be added to the grid from this month. Until such time, the required quantities of diesel and naphtha have been facilitated to meet the shortfall from thermal power plants,” he said. When The Sunday Morning made inquiries about the allegations relating to getting the unit 2 generator on the grid, Ratnayake assured that it would be added to the grid in the second week of October. As confirmed earlier by CEB Chairman N.S. Ilangakoon, unit 2 was to be added to the grid in mid September.   Unit 3 maintenance   In addition to the ongoing unit 2 maintenance, unit 3 of the Lakvijaya too has been scheduled for maintenance soon after the completion of work on unit 2. The CEB Chairman said unit 3 was also scheduled for maintenance as the experts had come down to Sri Lanka from China for this purpose as well. “Unit 3 will also take 75 days,” Ilangakoon added. However, as learnt by The Sunday Morning, the total fund requirement for the maintenance of unit 3 has not been finalised yet.   – By Maheesha Mudugamuwa