Urgency in supplementary power purchase | Sunday Observer

Urgency in supplementary power purchase

31 March, 2019

The CEB will now go ahead with supplementary power purchasing as a remedy to the existing power crisis, at a cost of 28 to 30 rupees per unit. According to CEB sources although a decision was taken to halt the supplementary purchasing, they will now go ahead for six months.

“Last February we sought the tender to get 100 MW of supplementary power. But it wasn’t awarded because originally it was to manage with existing capacities and also the PUCSL has stated that it is not according to the legal frame work. So it was temporarily stopped. Since we are at a crisis point now, we are going ahead with adding the 100 MW supplementary power to the grid”, a spokesperson for the CEB told Sunday Observer.The extra cost due to supplementary/emergency power purchasing will depend on the usage as well as fuel costs. But with the current demand it is expected that they will have to go in for a one hundred percent supply.

“Currently if we get supplementary power suppliers to connect to the national grid the utilization will be at 100 percent as this requirement exists,” Director Development of CEB Sulakshan Jayawardena told the Sunday Observer.

According to the CEB this crisis is a result of the failure to implement 300MW LNG power plants in Kerawalapitiya, four 24MW gas turbine projects and a 100 MW barge in the South. These are the projects that mattered most.

Two power plants (300MW each) will commence construction soon as the tenders have been awarded and even the PUCSL has approved it.

By 2021 another LNG plant will be connected to the grid. “We need to start adding to the grid to ensure that the rapidly increasing demand is met,” he said.In order to prevent a repetition of the current crisis, large power plants should commence operations immediately. 

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