Indonesian coal for power plant

Dinesh De Alwis

A cargo vessel with coal on board to generate electricity for the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant will arrive in Sri Lanka by October end. The cost of the first shipment of 65,500 MT of coal from Indonesia will be US$ 7 million.

Space has been allocated to store coal at Norochcholai. It has been estimated that one million tons of coal are needed to generate 300 Mw electricity during the year, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

Nearly 95 percent of the first phase (300Mw) Power Plant has been completed.

The other five percent will be completed within the next three months. Pre-testing for generating electricity are being carried out by experts.

By December this year, the Ministry hopes to add coal power electricity to the national grid. The project which was delayed over a decade was started by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2006. Construction of the 900 MW power plant is carried out by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation and built in three phases costing Rs 45 billion.