Kelanitissa Power Plant to add 165 MW to National Grid: CEB Chairman

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama  

The Kelanitissa Dual Cycle Power Plant, which was inactive since 2019 due to a technical fault, will be re-added to the National Grid on April 04 supplying 165 MW power, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Chairman Vijitha Herath said.  

Addressing the media he said the Power Plant  was currently undergoing restoration and it was under testing process.  

“The power plant is wholly owned by the Ceylon Electricity Board and started generating electricity in 2003 with a capacity of 165 MW. Further,110 MW electricity is generated by gas turbines and the remaining 55 MW is generated by steam,” Mr Herath said.  

“After the repair of the steam turbine on July 19, 2019, it was reconnected to the National Grid on October 12, 2019. However, there was a breakdown in the gas turbine. Since the repair work is mainly done by the Turbine Supplier Company, this turbine had been referred to the relevant company for repairs. The company which declined to repair the turbine, had told that new parts had to be installed. Accordingly, with the approval of the Power Ministry Procurement Committee, the steam turbine was sent to a Dubai company- Quartzs Electric’ for repairs.The company had fixed a price of $ 1.27 million for the repairs of the gas turbine, $ 850,000 for the repair of the steam turbine and $ 75,000 for the reassembly and installation of those machines,” he said.  

Although the company  had announced the completion of the repairs on June 20, 2020. it had  completed the repair works only by July 13 due to the spread of the Corona virus.