Search on for developers to set up more wind power plants in Jaffna

The Sustainable Energy Authority will advertise for developers to set up two more wind power plants in Jaffna, said B.B.S. Batagoda, Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy. 

Dr Batagoda said that an open competitive bidding process will be followed as opposed to the past when a price per kilowatt hour was fixed by the Ceylon Electricity Board and contracts handed out to developers on a first-come-first-served basis. 

The Northern Province already has two wind power projects, Joule Power (Pvt) Ltd and Beta Power (Pvt) Ltd. They were commissioned in December 2014 in Vallimunai and Pulopallai in the Kilinochchi District. 

The new power plants for which tenders are to be called will generate 10 megawatts of electricity each, adding a total of 20 megawatts to the national grid.

The Wind Energy Resources Atlas compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the year 2003 has identified three major regions as having "good to excellent" wind resources. It includes the Northwestern coastal region from the Kalpitiya Peninsula to the Mannar Islands and Jaffna Peninsula.