• 600 MW loss to national grid
• Unit 2 still under routine maintenance

BY P. Waravita   Unit One of the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai has faced a breakdown, for which the entire repair process including the determination of the exact cause will take about three weeks, thus extending ongoing power cuts to up to three hours in the coming days. “We suspect that there is a leak in one of the pipes that conveys steam. However, it will take us about two weeks to determine the exact cause, as we have to shut the unit down and wait for it to cool down before carrying out the necessary inspection. The entire repair process will most likely take about three weeks,” officials at the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) told The Morning yesterday (15). Earlier in the day, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera announced via his Twitter account that there was a breakdown at Unit One of the Power Plant, and that technical staff are working to identify the fault. Wijesekera further stated that Unit 2 of Norochcholai is also undergoing routine maintenance at present. The routine maintenance of Unit 2 began on 15 June and was expected to take about 75 days for it to be completed. Unit 3 of Norochcholai is continuing to operate. In total, the coal power plant adds about 900 megawatts (MW) to the national grid. However, with the shutdown of the two units, the national grid loses about 600 MW of power. PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake, at a media briefing yesterday, said that the 75% tariff increase, while it appears high, is in fact far less than the tariff increase requested by the CEB of 229%. He said that this increase had been requested by the CEB at the public stakeholder consultations held by PUCSL in June and July 2022, and that the CEB management had also lobbied the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to compel the PUCSL to agree to such an increase. He further said that the daily power cuts will increase due to the breakdown at Norochcholai. “Power cuts for today will remain at one hour and 20 minutes and will be extended from tomorrow as appropriate, due to a minor breakdown repair of the Norochcholai Power Plant. It will take approximately 14-16 days for the repair. The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) approved power cuts of three hours from 16-19 August,” he said. The CEB, in a media statement, expressed disappointment for the inconvenience caused to customers due to the breakdown, and said that it anticipates the repair process to take up to two weeks. The country relied heavily on hydropower stations and the coal power station for electricity generation over the past few weeks, which has significantly decreased the number of hours of power cuts faced by the consumers on a daily basis (the dry season at the beginning of the year resulted in lengthy power cuts, as the CEB had to struggle to find foreign exchange to purchase fuel for its thermal power plants).