WindForce PLC to consolidate projects in SL
WindForce PLC, Sri Lanka's largest renewable energy company, will be focusing on projects at hand in Sri Lanka for the next two years while welcoming the unbundling and restructuring of the energy sector, its Managing Director Manjula Perera told the Business Times.
The company, with 245 megawatts (MW) of installed renewable energy (RE) amidst a plethora of economic challenges in the country managed to develop two power plants. “During the past two years we developed a 10 MW solar power plant in Vavunathivu in
Batticaloa and a 15 MW wind power plant in Mannar district,” Mr. Perera said. This tenacious commitment to developing power plants got them two more projects awarded by the Ministry of Power. “We were the only company developing power plants during the multiple crises over the past two years. The ministry recognised this as a gesture of our efforts, and we were awarded two more RE projects - 10 MW solar and 15 MW wind - in the same locations in Batticaloa and Mannar,” Mr. Perera said. A 10 MW solar project in Kebithigollawa, Anuradhapura is to be commissioned next June, he added.
WindForce PLC, LTL Holdings’ subsidiary,
Lakdhanavi, and Singapore’s RE company The Blue Circle as a consortium, was awarded by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) on August 16 the largest private sector RE project in the country. Slated to increase the installed RE capacity by one-third, this US$ 152 million solar power plant with a transmission facility is to be set up in Siyambalanduwa in the Moneragala district.
Mr. Perera said that site investigation studies and survey plans have been completed and the power purchase agreement negotiations are in the conclusion stage. “We target the power purchase agreement signing by month end,” he said, noting that raising funds for the project was a challenge, but they managed to do it with a good response from development financial institutions.
WindForce’s overseas projects are running smoothly. The company has two solar power plants in Pakistan and in Uganda, two hydro and one solar plant. Its 10 MW Ukrainian solar power plant for the past three months, is generating power, Mr. Perera added. He said this plant is situated 60 km from the capital city and the ongoing war has not affected it as much.
He also welcomed the new Electricity Act, which was placed in the cabinet and called for observations within the next two weeks. “Restructuring this sector is necessary. With restructuring, one of the main advantages is that power wheeling will come in.”
Wheeling is the act of transporting electricity from a generator to a remotely located end-user through the use of an existing distribution or transmission system. Power wheeling enables power transportation from within an electrical grid to an electrical load outside the grid boundaries. “This will create an open market where power generators can sign contracts with direct customers. They can pay the network charge to the utility, making it a buyer’s market.”