Delegation from Seychelles visits Vallibel Mini Hydro Power Plant

The delegation of senior officials of the government of the Seychelles which accompanied James Alix Michel, President of Republic of Seychelles on his State Visit to Sri Lanka, paid a visit to a mini hydropower project of Vallibel located at Erathna, Kuruwita.

This visit was the result of the interest expressed by the Seychelles government to study the power generation strategy of Sri Lanka and the suggestion of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs to conduct a visit to the facility operated by the Vallibel Power Erathna plc. Hence Vallibel Power Erathnaplc Officials were pleased to invite a distinguished delegations consisting of Peter Andrew Sinon – Minister of Natural Resources and Industry, Beatty Salome Hoarau – Chairman of the Boat Owners Association, Charles Angelin Morin – Director General of Trade in the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Investment, . Johnette Stephen – First Secretary Desk Officer for Sri Lanka , along with officials of the Ministry of External Affairs.

The interest in the part of the Republic of the Seychelles for mini hydro projects arises from the fact that the Seychelles does not have her own indigenous energy sources and is therefore dependent on imports of petroleum products to cover domestic demand for electricity. All electricity produced is generated from thermal power plants. However the Seychelles government’s policy is to move towards a greener nation by developing renewable energy sources such as hydropower electricity.

VPEL has commissioned three mini hydropower projects with a cumulative capacity of 21.8 MW. This Mini Hydropower project at Erathna, a BOI project, was established eight years back with an installed capacity of 10 MW and it has a Net Head of 420 meters and its Penstock length is 2,250 meters while the Channel length is 300 meters. Voith Siemens has installed a state of the art electro mechanical plant in this project. To mark the visit of the delegates, which is a historical event in the VPEL calendar, a minister of Seychelles formally planted a tree. Senior officials of VPEL and site employees also joined in on this occasion.