The 300MW power plant in Norachcholai which has the capacity to produce more than six million units of electricity per day if operated fully, has, however, generated only half of its capacity during most part of 2011, causing millions in losses to the Ceylon Electricity Board.
CEB officials told The Island yesterday that as a result they were compelled to go for power purchases costing Rs. 50.00 per unit from other sources.
The plant has had a number of technical shortcomings during the course of 2011, according to officials.
Every non-operational day costs the CEB Rs. 80 million, according to Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka.
Ranawaka said the plant had not worked for 35 days since it was commissioned in March this year due to various reasons and the CEB had incurred huge losses as a result.
According to Ranawaka, one of the main reasons for the non-functioning of the power plant was a system failure experienced when the plant was connected to the national grid.
Problems had later been experienced in the auxiliaries.
Ranawaka said since it was a large plant and a new experience to the local employees and technicians, it would take some time for the CEB to adapt to the new system.
Unloading a shipment of coal had initially taken 25 days, but now it was done in nine days, Minister Ranawaka said.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=41931
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