Mystery surrounds dropping of two vital hydro power projects by CEB during yahapalana rule 

35MW Broadlands Hydro power plant expected to be completed next month

By Ifham Nizam   

The Power Ministry will go all out to complete the 35MW Broadlands Hydro power plant next month especially to cut down expensive oil fired power generation and avoid emergency power purchases.

The plant was scheduled to be completed last December but it got delayed due to the non- availability of top Chinese experts owing to the pandemic, but, with their return, the Ministry is confident of getting it completed now. Forty five Chinese experts are in the process of completing the plant.

With the commissioning of the plant, the CEB would be able to save more than Rs. 10 million a day. In 2020, CEB losses were Rs. 60 billion as against Rs 85 billion in the previous year, a senior official said.      

The 35 MW Hydro Power Plant will generate 125 million units or 125 GWh annually saving Rs. 3.75 billion.      

Members of the CEB senior management recently visited inside the 3.5 km tunnel of the 35MW Broadlands Project on the initiative and instructions of the Presidential Task Force led by Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa.      

The 35 MW plant over the Kelani Ganga at Kitulgala is constructed by the Chinese government-owned China National Electric Equipment Corporation while consultancy and monitoring are handled by the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau of Sri Lanka.      

The estimated cost of the project is USD 82 million and it is partly financed by a USD 69.7 million loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The balance is financed by the Hatton National Bank of Sri Lanka.      

The Broadlands project is the last plant in the Lakshapana cascade power station complex on the Kelani River system.      

The construction of the plant would prevent some 88,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. A unique feature of the project is that it is Sri Lanka’s first large-scale hydro power plant associated with the Clean Development Mechanism established under the International Kyoto Protocol.      

Plans have been prepared to construct an energy park, including a hydro power museum in the area expecting the area to become a tourist attraction      

Senior engineers of the CEB said that sidelining two important hydro power projects, which were scheduled to go into operation from 2015, were among some controversial proposals included in the Board’s previous Least Cost Generation Plan.      

A senior engineer said that the plan to sideline crucial and inexpensive hydro generation projects cost the CEB a minimum of Rs. 5 billion annually as it had to rely on costly thermal power to meet the shortfall in supply. “That resulted in a loss of Rs. 20 and Rs. 25 billion since 2015,” the official said      

The Broadlands 35MW and Uma Oya 120MW hydro plants were scheduled to commence operations by the start of 2015, as per the 2011 plan. However, they had been removed from the 2011 and 2013 plans for some unknown reason, an official said.      

It had to be investigated, according to senior engineers who pointed out that the delay in constructing hydro plants would have adverse cost implications.