PUCSL rejects CEB bid to hire 200MW barge-mounted plant
Electricity regulator, Publ i c U t i l i t i e s Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), has denied approval to the Ceylon Electricity Board ( CEB) to hire a 200MW barge- mounted plant for anchoring in Galle on an emergency basis.
The PUCSL says the CEB hasn’t submitted information to justify why it should be exempted from calling for competitive bids for the barge. The ship was to be rented from Karpower International DMCC of Dubai and stationed in Galle for 9 months.
The proposal did not come from the CEB and is not part of the utility’s generation plan. It was initiated by the Power & Energy Ministry, which also sought to station a 300MW barge at Kerawalapitiya—that, too, without tender.
There were other issues. The transmission line from Kerawalapitiya ( from which power from the 300MW Yugadhanavi plant run by West Coast Power Ltd, is conveyed to the national grid) does not have sufficient capacity to carry the additional 200MW from the barge.
In Galle, the transmission line is 6 km from the harbour, where the ship will be anchored. This means that another line will have to be drawn from the harbour, completing land acquisition and other procedures in 4 months.
The Attorney General ( AG) previously shot down the power purchase agreement for the Galle barge. He maintained that the Law provides for purchase of electricity outside of tender procedure only “to meet any emergency situation, as determined by the Cabinet of Ministers, during a national calamity or a long term forced outage of a major generation plant, where protracted bid inviting process outweigh the potential benefit or procuring emergency capacity required to be provided by any person at least cost”.
“Accordingly, it is re-iterated that the determination of an ‘ emergency situation’ by the Cabinet of Ministers should be done only where there is: a) a national calamity; or b) a long- term forced outage of a major generating plant,” a second AG’s opinion stated earlier this year.
In the past, the CEB has also pointed out that the barge was not specifically approved as an emergency procurement under t h e E l ec t r i c i t y (Amendment) Act.
In a letter to the CEB last week, the PUCSL determines the utility has not sufficiently proven that the electricity procured from Karpower will be on least-cost terms. Neither has it submitted information to establish the feasibility of implementing the proposed plant.
The CEB “has not submitted valid information that could justify the requirement of 200MW capacity addition on an emergency basis for the year 2019,” it reiterates.
Legal requirements that bind the PUCSL and “the constraints imposed by the non-receipt of requested information to justify the proposed procurement”, made it impossible for the PUCSL to approve the procurement of power from the 200MW barge- mounted power plant at Galle, on an emergency basis, the letter states.
The regulator has also demanded reasons from the CEB as to why it has so far failed to add 320MW of oil-fired power plants, 2 units of 35MW gas turbine power plants, as well as the 122MW Uma Oya power plant to the system in 2018 and 2019. Having added these plants would have further averted the requirement for emergency power.
It is the CEB’s responsibility to ensure there is sufficient capacity available to meet forecasted demand, the PUCSL states. Therefore, it should have initiated tenders on time for the procurement of power plants under the Least Cost Long Term Generat i o n Expansion Plan.