Cheaper electricity from Kerawalapitiya

COLOMBO: The Kerawalapitiya combined cycle power plant to be commissioned in the first week of December will provide electricity at a unit cost of Rs. 14, West Coast Company Managing Director U.D. Jayawardene said.

This is a major victory which disproved certain recent reports which predicted that a unit of electricity produced by the Kerawalapitiya power plant would exceed Rs. 32, the Power and Energy Ministry said yesterday. The 300 Megawatt Kerawalapitiya power plant project will be implemented in two stages. The second stage with a capacity of 100 Megawatts will generate electricity from the power of steam.

Electricity produced from steam will be still cheaper and would be Rs. 9 per unit Jayawardene said.

The Ministry said the Kerawalapitiya plant built with the contribution of local engineers within one year had enabled the country to overcome an imminent power crisis. The project costing US $ 300 million was jointly funded by the treasury, LECO, EPF and the Bank of Ceylon.