NCCSL welcomes construction of coal power plant

The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) welcomed the Government's plans to commence work on Norochcholai Coal Power Plant before the end of the year.

An NCCSL press release stated: "According to the Minister of Power and Energy, Susil Premajayantha Upper Kotmale Project and the first phase of the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant would be ready for commissioning within the next four to six years.

The country has been experiencing severe power shortage as the demand for electricity was not met with the additional power generation. Even if the demand was met to a certain extent it was with the generation of oil fired thermal power. Annual demand for power is estimated to be in the region of 8% - 10%. The supply is not sufficient to meet this demand.

As a result, the cost of production of goods and services has become very high. It has come to a stage that the local industry could not compete with their counterparts in neighbouring countries like India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia etc which supply power to their industry at very competitive rates.

Meeting the increasing demand with the oil fired thermal generation has aggravated the situation further, with the oil prices being subject to regular increases.

Power sector reforms also must go hand in hand with the commencement of the above two projects. Reforms could increase efficiency of all three stages viz generation, transmission and distribution. Creating different organisations for generation, transmission and distribution would improve the efficiency and reduce wastage thereby passing the benefits to consumers mainly the industry.

A rural electrification program will help locating many new industries out of the western region which enjoys a major share of the country's economic development and per capita income, says the NCCSL.