Proposals for new power plants: With or without pollution? 

By Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri-May 1, 2016

Minister of Power and Energy (P&E) Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has, in a recent statement in Parliament on the Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) failure to avoid a blackout in the electricity supply, proposed to build a new thermal power plant operating on natural gas either in Hambantota or Galle. The Secretary to the P&E Ministry is reported to have said that the government is planning to install a natural gas power plant instead of the proposed coal power plant (CPP) at Sampur. The CEB Chairman has reportedly denied that claim. The benefits of using natural gas to generate electricity needs some elaboration and hence this write up.

Coal power plants in the pipeline

One CPP that has been proposed several years back but still not taken off the ground is the 500 MW plant to be built at Sampur near Muttur jointly with India. All the designs and the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report have been completed according to CEB sources. However, the EIA report has many deficiencies which may not have been pointed out by the public. One key shortcoming is the dismissal of the alternative option of using natural gas saying that it will result in an increase of the tariff, without giving any details.

In this project, an Indian Company will invest 15% of the capital while demanding they be allowed to purchase electricity generated through a high voltage direct current link to India. The pollution it creates will of course remain in our soil. The plant is said to be a sub-critical type having low efficiency though the actual value is in dispute, as the value given in the EIA report (44%) is not consistent with that given in the CEB’s Long Term Generation Expansion (LTGE) Plan (33%).

The second CPP in the pipeline is that proposed by Japan during a high level meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries. This 600 MW plant is said to be a more advanced super critical type having higher efficiency (41%) resulting in less pollution. The CEB has decided to locate this plant also at Sampur and its feasibility studies have been completed with financial assistance from Japan, according to CEB’s LTGE Plan 2015-2034, though its EIA report is yet to be prepared.

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