‘Always breakdown’ Norochcholai power plant exposed in Parliament
Friday, 24 January 2014 00:54
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By Ashwin HemmathagamaOur Lobby Correspondent
Regardless of the continuous breakdowns at Lakvijaya Power Station in Norochcholai, the Government has awarded the second phase of the project to the same contractor – China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation – based on the strong conditions found on the loan agreement signed with China Exim Bank.
These conditions have “handicapped the Government” to consider another contractor but to continue with China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation “without obtaining a technical fault report during the phase one”.
According to Minister of Power and Energy Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi, obtaining technical fault report in June 2009 was “premature since the project phase one was incomplete” at the time of awarding the second phase.
But assuring the smooth operation of the Norochcholai power station and to avoid future breakdowns, the Ceylon Electricity Board is in the process of identifying the faults, Minister of Power and Energy Wanniarachchi told the Parliament in response to questions raised by opposition lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake under Section 23/2 of the Standing Orders.
“The contractors engaged in this project and the equipment manufacturers are consulted to do the improvements and the necessary modifications in the second phase. The main reasons for the breakdown were the technical faults of the machines,” she said.
However, MP Dissanayake revealed Norochcholai power station, which was due to complete phase one constructions in January 2012 was prematurely opened in March 2011 neglecting the technical evaluations and skipping the necessary tests required before commencing the commercial electricity generation.
“Since March 2011 the Norochcholai power station broke 25 times. Adding more to this, Kelanitissa and Kerawalapitiya power stations are also broken at the moment. National grid misses 655MW due to the failures of these three power stations,” said MP Dissanayake.
“We have obtained Rs. 58,706 million for the first phase and Rs. 92,195 for the second phase. A grace period of five years was give and the repayment will be made within 15 years. The station started generating power on 13 February 2011 and was out of order for 271 days from time to time. But until December 2013 the power plant managed to provide 3,646 giga watt hours to the national grid saving Rs. 65 billion. The loss of power due to plant failure comes to 1,391 giga watt hours,” she said.
