Minister critisises N’cholai power plant

In the aftermath of the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant (LCPP) repeatedly breaking down, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ra- nawaka said yesterday Norochcholai was not the ideal location for such a power plant and that neither was the Chinese machinery up to international standards.

He said the other negative factor was the failure of the then government to obtain Japanese technology and financial assistance to set up the first coal power plant in Sri Lanka.

The minister agreed that if the LCPP, a victim of many a misjudgment, was not built Sri Lanka would have faced a power crisis today.

“If we had obtained Japanese technology and financial assistance to build the coal power plant, we won’t be facing this predicament. By 2005, Sri Lanka had successfully negotiated with the Japanese to build the first coal power plant. But unfortunately the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga rejected it citing protests from some quarters as the reason,” the

If we had obtained Japanese technology to build the coal power plant, we won’t be facing this predicament

minister said.

“When I took over as the Power and Energy Minister in 2010 the ground work for the LCPP had been completed and what remained was to commission the power plant,” he said and added that by that time the MoU and the contract for construction had been signed and feasibility studies completed.

The minister said CEMEC of China and Pyory of Switzerland did the consultancy work for the LCPP and the CEB would not approve anything to be done at the plant without the green light from the two firms.

However, the LCPP which provides 300 MWs to the national grid, is extremely vital for the provision of an uninterrupted power supply, and the repeated breakdowns had compelled the CEB to introduce power cuts during the day.