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Coal power plants: Major overhauls put off due to power shortages and COVID-19
At least two units of the Lakvijaya coal power plant in Norochcholai are due for major overhauls but continuing power shortages and, in the past two years, COVID-19, have meant that these have been repeatedly postponed.
Meanwhile, Unit 3 — the newest of the three coal power units — could have a major issue coming up, mainly because a major overhaul was not done in time, an authoritative power sector source warned. He was analysing data that the Sunday Times had obtained on forced and planned outages in each of the three Lakvijaya units. The data were obtained from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) using the Right to Information Act.
The request yielded 11 pages of data starting from September 2011, when the oldest unit was commissioned, until January 1 this year–the date on which Unit 3 was restarted after a costly generator seal oil leak caused by the forced shutdown triggered by the December 3, 2021, countrywide blackout.
Planned outages are when a unit is switched off for a scheduled maintenance. Forced outages are unforeseen. They can be prompted by system disturbances, malfunctions or various other faults in the units. In total, across the whole period for all three units, there have been 976 planned shutdowns and 1,072 forced shutdowns. “That is a significantly high number of days lost on forced outages,” the source pointed out. 
Only Unit 1 has ever had a ‘Level A’ major overhaul when it was shut down on schedule for 189 days from July 2015 to February 2016. According to a National Audit Office report released in 2019, ‘Level A’ maintenance requires a 100-day shutdown; ‘Level B’, 45 days; and ‘Level C’, around 25 days.
“Plant operation skills have greatly improved since 2018,” the power sector source said, attributing it to training received in recent years by local engineers. While Unit 1 has counted a total of 61 forced outages–it was the most problematic unit– which is the highest of the three, it has performed “exceptionally well” after a chronic problem in its boiler tubes was fixed.
According to manufacturer recommendations, there must be a major overhaul every four years. This means in 2019 for Units 2 and 3 and in 2021 for Unit 1 (as it has already undergone one). The CEB has been making do with Level B works and repairs.
While two ‘Level A’ overhauls have been slotted in for this year, it is still uncertain if they can take place. “Because of the electricity shortfall, we cannot shut down Lakvijaya,” said Indrasiri Gallage, former plant manager who retired in 2020. “It is usually planned for the rainy season and it remains to be seen whether it can be done this year. Those scheduled for 2020 were postponed because the Chinese engineers could not travel owing to COVID-19.”
Lakvijaya is Sri Lanka’s largest power station. In 2020, it provided 36 percent of net electricity to the grid, the largest share from a single power plant. But a major flaw is that it repeatedly shuts down for at least three days after a total power failure.
“The estimated financial loss, if oil-fired generating capacity is available, is at least Rs 200 million per day for all three units,” said a report released last month by a committee that investigated the December 3 total blackout.
It urged the CEB to urgently settle on a strategy and solution to resolve this issue in the eight-year-old power plant which still has several decades of service ahead.
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