Thursday Dec 26, 2024
Thursday Dec 26, 2024
Tuesday, 30 March 2021 03:45 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Power Minister Dullas Alahapperuma, and Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka Eric Lavertu, inaugurated the new Grid Sub Station and the related transmission line in Nawalapityia on 17 March.
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the funding agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) were also present for the event.
The Nawalapityia Grid Sub Station is a sample of the achievements done under the € 30 million project Renewable Energy Absorption Transmission Development Project (REATDP), that aims at improving the transmission grid’s capacity to absorb renewable energy generated by small hydropower plants in the hill country. This is in line with the Government of Sri Lanka’s increasingly ambitious goals in the field of renewable energy production.
AFD has been supporting the CEB with this project since 2015. A € 30 million soft loan is supporting the construction of four new grid substations located in the Central Province – namely, in Maliboda, Wewalwatta, Nawalapityia and Ragala. Of these, Maliboda and Wewalwatta Grid Substations are already energised. The project is expected to bring down Sri Lanka’s carbon emissions as per the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted under the Paris Agreement. It is expected to conclude by mid-2021
At the project inception in 2015, AFD and the French Ministry of Finance provided grant financing for a technical cooperation program between CEB and Electricité de France (French electric utility), including trainings to CEB engineers and knowledge exchange on innovative procurement methods. Based on this partnership with EDF, CEB implemented an optimised procurement strategy, leading to reduce substantially the original project cost, with a saving of almost 7 million euros.
