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Lakvijaya’s ‘recharged’ Unit 1 adds 330 MW to national grid from today
The remaining unit of the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai is scheduled to generate electricity from today (15), adding 300 MW of badly needed power to the national grid.
Director (Development) of the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy Sulakshana Jayawardena told the Sunday Times that, Unit 1 of the plant is on schedule to be connected to the national grid from today.
Unit 1 had remained out of action since mid-October of last year, when a sudden breakdown in the system knocked out all three units at the 900MW plant. The incident compelled the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to impose islandwide power-cuts for several days. Though Units 2 and 3 were restored soon after, engineers had observed that it would take a lot longer to repair Unit 1.
In December, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the country’s power sector regulator too, underlined the importance of restarting electricity generation at Unit 1 of the Norochcholai plant by January 1, 2017. The regulator emphasised this was an essential step towards easing the strain on the national grid, which will be severely tested due to restrictions in hydro-power generation due to drought conditions expected to affect the island from January to March this year.