By Ifham Nizam
The power supply situation in the country is not yet out of the woods as the Monsoon rains have not yet shown any signs of reaching the reservoir areas in the coming months, senior officials of the Ceylon Electricity Board said on Wednesday
They say if the Monsoon brings rain in November as expected, reservoirs such as Randenigala, Maussakelle and Castlereigh are expected to receive sufficient inflows to manage during the dry season of 2012 (normally January to April).
However, CEB sources reveal that the inter-Monsoon rains, which should have been active by this time of the year, have failed so far, making the CEB officials extremely nervous.
In the meantime, the 300 MW Lak Wijaya Coal Plant at Norochcholai has been shut down for over three weeks for unknown reasons. Earlier, it was announced by the Power and Energy Ministry that a short shut down of the plant was permitted to carry out some routine maintenance work and to install a new flue gas desulfurization unit.
However, it was later revealed that the shutdown was necessitated by a delay in coal shipments, leading to allegations and counter-allegations of malpractices in awarding the coal supply tender to an Indonesian firm.
It is reliably learnt that the Ministry of Power and Energy had plans to acquire a coal mine in Indonesia on lease or outright purchase. It is further learnt that for this purpose a high powered individual had inspected coal mines in the Palembang District of Indonesia managed by a company called PT Bukit Asam, which is owned by the coal supplier PT Tiga Lentera Abadi based in Jakarta.
According to information available to The Island, a powerful wheeler dealer in the power business who acts as the local agent for the said company also had taken part in these inspection visits. However, the Ministry has later entered into a coal supply agreement with another supplier in Indonesia, as the top people in the Government were not convinced of the idea of leasing or purchasing a coal mine.
It is learnt that the delayed coal shipment has arrived on October 8 and the current shutdown of Lak Wijaya Plant is a result of continuing technical issues which the local engineers are in an uphill battle to overcome.
A high powered team of CEB officials was expected to visit the plant to study firsthand the problems faced by the plant.
CEB engineers say that with the coal plant out and not knowing when it will come on line, all other available thermal plants are running flat-out to supply the daily demand of electricity in the country.
They fear that if another plant such as Kerawalapitiya were to break down, CEB will have no option other than to impose unannounced power shedding like it did few months back.
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