Norochcholai Power Plant: 300 MW unit to shut down for 75 days
05 Jun 2022
Norochcholai Power Plant: 300 MW unit to shut down for 75 days
05 Jun 2022
Scheduled maintenance repeatedly postponed
By Maheesha MudugamuwaThe national grid will be short of 300 MW in two weeks as Unit 2 of the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai is scheduled to be shut down for a compulsory maintenance of two-and-a-half months, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) confirmed yesterday (4).Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Additional General Manager – Generation Andrew Navamani told The Sunday Morning that the CEB was waiting for the necessary spare parts for the maintenance of the power plant.“The power plant will be shut down for 75 days from 18 June,” he said.Last week, The Sunday Morning reported that Sri Lanka was trying to find $ 20 million to import critical spare parts for the scheduled maintenance.The Sunday Morning learnt that the scheduled maintenance of the power plant has been repeatedly postponed due to the existing power shortage in the country.Continuous postponement of maintenance of critical power infrastructure will pose a serious threat to energy security. If the generation units of the power plant are continuously used without timely maintenance, the risk of unexpected breakdowns increases, a high-ranking CEB official told The Sunday Morning on terms of anonymity.Even though the CEB has been planning to push forward with necessary maintenance, the availability of required spare parts has been an issue, with the country struggling to find the necessary foreign exchange to open the Letters of Credit (LCs) required to import the spare parts.Lakvijaya is Sri Lanka’s largest power station. The power plant provided 36% of net electricity to the grid in 2020 – the largest share from a single power plant.The Norochcholai Power Plant suffered an unscheduled shutdown in December 2021, which caused an island-wide power outage and is now the subject of multiple investigations, including a public hearing by the utilities regulator, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL).
