News
Sampur EIA report out soon
View(s):The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the Sampur Coal Power Project will be published ‘very soon’ after which tenders will be called to purchase generating equipment for the plant, said M.M.C. Ferdinando, Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy.
The project has been crippled by delays from the time it was signed in 2006, a full eight years ago. But Mr. Ferdinando said differences between the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) over details in the price purchase agreement (PPA) have been cleared up. The final documents were signed in October 2013.
The EIA is still in the process of being completed after which a supplier has to be found for equipment, including the plant itself. The joint venture firm, Trincomalee Power Company Ltd., is responsible for this phase of the initiative.
“The EIA has to be completed before tendering,” Mr. Ferdinando said. “If it says that the project cannot be done here, we will stop the thing. ““The company is required to go for open bidding,” he continued. “Tenders will be called from international suppliers. It has been agreed that we will go for the most efficient, state-of-the-art plant.”
The proposed 500MW plant is now expected to be ready by 2018. The cost of the coal will be met by the Sri Lanka Government. There is consensus that the most superior quality of coal will be used.
Meanwhile, the Chinese-built Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant continues to meet 33.76 per cent of the country’s energy needs. But the quantity of electricity generated by hydropower reservoirs has risen to 35.1 per cent as a result of rains. Reservoir storage has also increased to 45.4 percent.
Overall, 61.1 percent of consumption was met this week by thermal power, including coal. These figures, which are published on the CEB website, do not include generation from private small power producers (mini hydro, solar, dendro, biomass).