Sri Lanka power firm warns of time lag

Nov 13, 2007 (LBO) – A power investor says it may take more than two years to set up a thermal plant if it was given the go ahead now, after Sri Lanka's power minister said the state electricity utility was seeking additional capacity. . "If we were given the go ahead now, it may take about two and a half years to supply the plant because production slots at power plant makers are filled," Hemas group managing director Hussein Esufally said.

Hemas is a partner of Heladanavi, a 100 MegaWatt furnace oil powered independent power producer located in the Puttalam area north of Colombo.

Esufally said the government had sought proposals for additional power and the firm had responded. It was now awaiting feedback.

The original Heladanavi plant was up and running within a record 14 month period, he said.

The plant had delivered 2.46 billion rupees worth of energy in the first half of this year to the state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) up from 1.8 billion. It had earnined 149 million rupees in the period, up from 138 million last year.

Eusufally said the plant would deliver the contracted energy for the year despite a closure for scheduled maintenance.

Heladanavi is part of an energy group affil