Spilleth Over

Jan 13 (LBO) - The largest storage reservoir in the Sri Lankan hydro – electrical generation system spilled early Friday morning, for the first time sicne 1997, a Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) official said. Jan 13 (LBO) - The largest storage reservoir in the Sri Lankan hydro – electrical generation system spilled early Friday morning, for the first time sicne 1997, a Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) official said. Storage capacity in all reservoirs in the CEB system also topped the 1000 GigaWatthours (GWh) – enough water to generate one-billion units of electricity – for the first time in seven-years.

A CEB official told LBO that Victoria spilled at 1.10 am and stopped at round 9 am.

At full capacity the Victoria dam alone holds enough water to generate 425 GWh of energy.

The utility has been able to reduce dependence on thermal power as a result.

Over the weekend, the two combined cycle power plants, which used to provide round the clock base-load, has now been largely replaced by Victoria's 3x71 MW (mega watt) hydro generators.

Due to poor rainfall in recent years, the Victoria reservoir has been used almost exclusively as a night peaking plant, except when irrigation needs forced