Sri Lanka calls international bids to add 60MW to national grid

Jan 11, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cabinet has decided to purchase 60 megawatts of power through an open international competitive bidding process for a short term period of six months starting from February.

This 60MW is to be installed at three or more suitable locations to ease the transmission constraints that has arisen in the Central and Southern Provinces.



According to the recommendations made by Public Utilities Commission, more generation capacity should be added to the national grid to ensure uninterrupted power supply.



Met Department said adequate rainfall could not be expected during the coming 4 months and therefor it is not prudent to rely on the existing hydropower capacity of 1,350MW which is 30 percent of the 3,900MW of total installed capacity. The cabinet approval has also been received to extend the expired agreement periods of three furnace oil power plants for six months.



Accordingly, agreement periods will be extended for Ace Power Plant Embilipitiya (100MW), Ace Power Plant Matara (20MW) and Heladhanavi Power Plant Puttalam (100MW).



The CEB requested to extend the power purchase agreements of these power plants by five years. The ministry however said it is not appropriate to extend the period by 5 years as the government is also looking at purchasing these three power plants for the future energy demands.

In case the procurement process is completed to purchase the three power plants, the power purchase agreements will be terminated.