Norochcholai coal power plant:

Major icon of wonder nation

Ariya Rubasinghe

Construction work on Phase one of the Norochcholai coal power plant is almost completed and it will be declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on February 10

Under Phase One, Norochcholai Coal Power Plant project will generate 300 mw, which will amount to 17 percent of the national power requirement and it will be connected to the main grid at Veyangoda. The initial plans for establishing a coal power plant to overcome the impending power shortages in Sri Lanka was conceived in early 1970s and it was planned to establish this plant in Trincomalee, taking into consideration the port facilities available in Trincomalee for shipment of coal. Even some engineers and technical staff of the Electricity Board were sent on foreign scholarship to familiarize with the new technology.

Later-on Trincomalee as a site for this project was abandoned due to the intensified terrorist activities in the region and it was decided to establish this project in Norochcholai instead. Accordingly it was planned to commence this project in the early 1980s.

However, due to political expediency and the value of votes becoming more important than development of the country, similar to the Upper Kotmale Project, this project was also totally abandoned citing lame excuses such as environmental pollution, resentment of some communities etc. Instead, politically affable private sector firms were allowed to generate electricity using diesel at a high cost and sell power to the Electricity Board with substantial profit, thereby making electricity a burden to the ordinary masses, and even to many industries. Due to these politically motivated decisions Sri Lanka has lost about two billion rupees per year all these years.

Visionary decision of President

Upon becoming President in November 2005, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, for whom the interest of the Motherland is second to none, took the bold and visionary decision to implement all power projects abandoned for political reasons and construction of the Norochcholai plant received a new birth in 2006, upon successful negotiations with the Chinese Government to finance this project. The plant is being built at a cost of US $ 455 million on a concessionary soft loan from China facilitated by China’s EXIM bank. The main contractor of the project is China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation.

Generate 900 mw upon completion

The total project is being implemented successfully and will generate 900 mw upon completion of all the three phases. Over 90 percent of the Phase One of the projects has now been completed. All 80 odd families displaced by the project have been settled in comfortable abodes with all amenities without disrupting their employment avenues and social life. Those who were engaged in the fishing industry have been provided fishing boats and gear and plots of land amounting to two and half acres for cultivation during the off fishing season.

It is real wonder

It is a beautiful sight to see that these families have cultivated various kinds of vegetables and tobacco in these lands and particularly the womenfolk tendering their plants. Test firing of the project was successfully carried out on November 17, 2010 in conjunction with the second swearing-in of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The total project site covers 95 hectares. Fixing of generators, conveyor belts for transport of coal, cooling plants, coal crushers, water purification plants, filtering mechanisms have been completed and the machinery is being tested at present. It is a real wonder to observe the plant completed and the machinery is being tested at present. It is a real wonder to observe the plant function and this plant reaffirms the possibility of making Sri Lanka becoming the wonder nation of the Asia, as envisaged by the President.

Arrangements have been made to get coal for this project from Indonesia due to Indonesia’s close proximity to Sri Lanka and low Sulphur content in the Indonesian coal. It has been found that Indinesian coal is cheaper than Australian, South African and Chinese coal, the other major coal producing countries and the coal extracted in India has high Sulphur contents and is hazardous to the machinery.

Seven million tons of coal

The plant will require seven million tons of coal for a period of three months and the coal yard has the capacity to stack this quantity as during three months of the year due to windy and stormy conditions in the sea, shipments cannot be made during that period. Already the coal yard is stacked with sufficient quantities of coal for the commercial operation of the plant by early next month.

The ships carrying coal will be anchored 45 km away from the shore due to sea near to the shore being shallow and it will then be transported to the yard in barges. Each shipment could bring 65,000 tons of coal and a barge can carry 5,000 tons in each trip to the shore.

The purchase of coal is being handled by the Lanka Coal Limited and the shipping will be handled by the Sri Lanka Shipping Corporation. Already there are three barges and three tugboats to handle the transport activities and it is expected to increase the number of barges shortly.

The coal will be crushed to about 10 mm particles and the waste will be separated. The Plant also has the facility to extract Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide containing in the coal.

Also it has a filtering mechanism to filter the coal ash and store them separately. Coal ash can be used for cement manufacture and filling purposes and presently negotiations are under way with cement manufactures to sell this coal ash for cement manufacturing.

Pumping seawater

The generators will be activated by steam and the Plant is equipped with a complete process of pumping sea water, filter it to avoid unsuitable particles including fish getting into the system, extract minerals in the sea water, produced purified water and use to generate steam.

The coal helps ignite the burners and heats the water to produce steam. The whole Plant is environmental friendly and it has a windshield covering the whole length of the coal conveyor belt preventing coal ashes mixing with the environment.

All infrastructure work of the project, including construction of the access road is being financed by the Sri Lankan Government outside the funds obtained from the Chinese Bank.

The construction of the access road from the Palavi-Kalpitiya highway is also nearing completion.

A media tour to the site was organized by the Media Centre for National Development of the Mass Media and Information Ministry and the officials at the site including the Senior Project Director W.D.N. Xavier, Project Director Electricals P C C Perera, Project Director Mechanical Lokubalasuriya, Project Manager Boiler and Coal handling A P A De Vas Gunawardene and the Site Project Manager of the main contractor China Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation, Wong Ludong apprised the media team about various aspects of the functions involving in the operation of this project.

The writer is Media Centre for National Development Director General, Mass Media and Information Ministry

Courtesy: Mass Media and Information Ministry