Victoria, Kotmale waters decrease, Kerawalapitiya not functioning
By Ifham Nizam
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is finding it difficult to cope with the country’s electricity demand as water levels in the main reservoirs of Victoria and Kotmale were dropping rapidly while the 300MW Kerawalapitiya Power Plant was shut down for maintenance from yesterday.
U. D. Jayawardena, Chairman of Lanka Transformers Limited (LTL), the company which operates the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant, told ‘The Island’ that they were going in for a scheduled routine maintenance which was due months ago but postponed due to the severe shortfall in hydro power generation.
‘The Island’ learns that the routine maintenance work is a must as failure to carry them out on time might cause severe damage to the plant..
He said the maintenance operation usually takes two weeks. However, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has requested them to speed up the overhaul.
Senior CEB officials told The Island yesterday that the Kerawalapitiya Plant contributes five million GWh of the daily need of 32 million GWh.
The CEB spokesman yesterday said that though Moussakelle and Castlereigh experienced slight showers, the water levels in both Victoria and Kotmale was unsatisfactory.
Meanwhile, the water level of several tanks in the North Central Province had also receded. Levels of the Kala Wewa, Kandalama and Rajanganaya tanks were decreasing rapidly.
NCP residents say they are facing severe inconvenience as it is hard to find drinking water and water for cultivation purposes particularly for paddy, which is the main livelihood of the people in the area.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=33228
No comments:
Post a Comment