By Saman Indrajith

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) on Thursday (17) granted approval for purchasing 100MW of electricity from the private sector on a short-term basis.The approval of PUCSL has been granted to the transmission licensee under section 43(4)(c)(ii) of Sri Lanka Electricity Act No.20 of 2009 (as amended).

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) asked permissino for purchasing 100MW for the southern province for six months.The PUCSL allowed the CEB to purchase emergency power from 18 August 2023, subject to the following conditions.

1. The adding generation capacity shall operate on merit order basis and transmission licensee shall demonstrate that the power plants operated on merit order through an independent dispatch audit at the end of Power Purchase Agreement period.

2. The Kotmale – New Polpitiya 220kV line shall be energized before 31 August 2024.

3. The procurement of above supplementary power shall be done on the least cost basis.

PUCSL has considered the following in arriving at the decision:

1. Cabinet of Ministers has authorized the release of water from Samanalawewa Power Plant for irrigation purposes and to procure 100MW of supplementary power by 15 August 2023, for a period of four to six months to avoid planned power shedding at the Cabinet meeting held on 07 August 2023.

2. According to information from the Meteorological Department, significant rainfall can be expected only from mid -October 2023.

3. The release of water for agricultural purposes from Samanalawewa has begun on 08 August 2023 and the storage level of the Samanalawewa Reservoir has been recorded as 2.6GWh (1.9%) as at 06.00hrs on 17th August 2023, which will be totally depleted on 23rd August 2023 losing a generation capacity of 120MW to the southern part of the grid.

4. Energizing of New Polpitiya – Hambantota 220kV transmission line has not totally resolved the capacity shortage in the southern part of the grid as Kotmale – New Polpitiya 220kV line which is designed to bring the generation of the Mahaweli Complex and connect the 220kV network to the southern part of the grid is still not available.

5. The generation of the Laxapana Complex can only be utilized to compensate for the unavailability of generation from Samanalawewa Power Plant. However, there is a requirement of continuous release of water from Laxapana complex in order to maintain minimum requirement for drinking water supply to Colombo until next inter monsoon. Therefore, Laxapana Complex cannot be utilized to fully compensate for the unavailability of Samanalawewa Power Plant.

6. The water storage as at 17th August 2023 is 27.9%.

7. Adding supplementary power could help to reduce the hydro dispatch during the course of the year and facilitate the building of sufficient hydro storage (at least 800GWh) as an initial storage on 1 January 2024.

8. The expected date of energizing the New Polpitiya – Hambantota transmission line shall be 20 August 2023

9. The Unit 2 of Lakvijaya Power Station has already recommenced operation after repairs and unit 3 of Lakvijaya plant is expected to be operational by 06 November 2023.

10. The Results of the load flow studies (including line loads and busbar voltages in the southern part of the grid during day peak and night peak).