Plant 2 of Norochcholai to be shut down: Longer power cuts on the cards

By Ifham Nizam

There will be three-hour power cuts daily due to the shutdown of the second plant of the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant Complex for 75 days due to repairs.

CEB Engineer, Isuru Kasthurirathne said the shutdown was due to scheduled maintenance.

Asked whether the CEB could have delayed the shutdown, given the crisis in the country, Kasthurirathne said that they had postponed the scheduled maintenance as much as possible.

“If we delay the scheduled maintenance further, there will be consequences. The plant might break down,” he said.

Kasthurirathne told The Island the national grid would lose 270MW from Monday and thermal power plants would have to increase generation to meet the demand.

However, given that Sri Lanka was facing a fuel shortage, it would be impossible to allocate extra quantities of diesel for power generation, he said.

“The government has other commitments and fuel cannot be provided only for the power sector. Things are not that bad now because we can produce a lot of hydro power. But reservoirs won’t remain brimful indefinitely.”

Kasthurirathne said that by October and November the water levels of the reservoirs would drop and then the country would face a far worse power crisis.

“The Ceylon Electricity Board also doesn’t have money to import spare parts for power plants,” said Eng. Eranga Kudahewa, the Co-Representative of the CEB Engineers’ Union.

“We need around USD 640 million to import coal required to the Lakvijaya coal power plant to produce electricity next year. We don’t know how they will raise funds. Therefore, we will have to rely completely on diesel power plants. Otherwise, the duration of power cuts will increase,” he warned.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said that the country spent 100 million US dollars a month to generate thermal power using diesel. “This is an expenditure that the country can’t bear,” he said.