Norochcholai Coal Power Plant to Supply 300MW Electricity as First Phase Completes

26th January 2011, www.news.lk

The first phase of the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant has been completed and will be opened shortly.

Under the first phase of the project, the power plant would provide around 300 MW to the national grid which is 17% of the consumer requirement.

The second and third phase will generate another 600 MW to the national grid.

This project is to be fully commissioned by 2014 with the completion of its third stage. Sri Lanka uses around 28 GW hours of power daily and the contribution through thermal power is over 60 percent.

Due to recent heavy shower the Electricity board shut down all thermal power generation plant and wholly depend on hydropower as all reserviours in the country are now at spill level.

As a result the Board could save over Rs 100 million daily "There have been immense obstacles to the development of the country due to the lack of consensus. This is evident when considering the history of the Norochcholai Power Plant Project. I feel that this project had many setbacks on various occasions because people’s needs were shrouded by political expediency", stated President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his message for the commenced of second phase of the
project.

The government of China has provided USD 455 mn for this task which was initiated in July 2007. The government has allocated Rs.300mn.