Coal power plant failures behind islandwide blackouts: Expert

11 February 2025 06:40 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 19 Bookmark

CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA Follow

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Colombo, February 11 (Daily Mirror) - If a countrywide power outage occurred and took longer to restore, the primary cause of both recent and past islandwide blackouts would be the failure of the country's three coal power plants, energy expert, advisor and former member of the Renewable Energy Ministry, Asoka Abeygunawardana said.

While refuting claims by the CEB engineers, he said that rooftop solar power users cannot be blamed, as they contribute energy to the main grid.

The islandwide blackout occurred due to an issue on the demand side of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the failure to take necessary precautions to prevent it, he added.

"The first coal power plant proposal was made in 1990. Coal power plants were established as a result of improper planning for their construction, rather than following the global trend of adopting renewable energy over the past 20 years, as preferred by CEB planners.

"Today, this coal power plant system is in a state where it is impossible to restore and maintain reliably. Therefore, bringing coal power plants to Sri Lanka was a completely wrong decision by the CEB planners. As the country strengthens its renewable energy sector, coal power plants become incompatible with the nation's energy goals," he said.

"If it was planned to generate energy using liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, that would be compatile with the renewable system in the country. Unfortunately, it has not happened.

"The main cause of the recent blackouts was the issue with the CEB's generation plan. The CEB consistently planned to build only coal power plants, even up to 2040, based on incorrect assumptions about global energy trends," Abeygunawardana said.

"The transmission lines were constructed solely to carry electricity from coal power plants, not from renewable energy sources. This was a disastrous decision by the authorities. As a result, the existing transmission network is unable to integrate stable renewable energy effectively. If plans had been made to meet the actual demand, the current solar power capacity could have been integrated into the system without any issues," he said.

Comments - 19

Hmmm... Tuesday, 11 February 2025 07:06 AM

Not that I am a conspiracy theorist but can't help wondering if this is all a push to make Adani wind power project look valid.

5 9

Ram P Tuesday, 11 February 2025 07:12 AM

It may be that the Coal Power plants are substandard on the installation, money going into politicians. Our Coal power has failed many times but India and China still continue with coal power and they work without failure. I guess my point is clear

1 10

Spartacus Tuesday, 11 February 2025 01:24 PM

Yes, coal power plants are there in India and China, but they augment the main source from nuclear power.

1 0

T Sal Tuesday, 11 February 2025 07:22 AM

Hightime we have responsible person for responsible ministries not jokers who think that they can do monkey tricks on the masses.

0 6

S P Tuesday, 11 February 2025 07:23 AM

Here we go! There’s no point in pointing fingers at a decade old project about its deficiencies. In spite of them Norochcholai’s 810MW carried us through the thick and thin during that period giving us cost effective electricity. So let us try to fix this technical problem instead of running our own agendas to say ‘I told you so’!

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Advocate for rooftop solar mafia puts up rubbish Tuesday, 11 February 2025 07:43 AM

Nuclear, coal, gas and oil are still the best reliable baseload generators. Solar and other renewables are on the whims of the weather. Rooftop solar needs overseas has caused massive increases in grid infrastructure where in other countries exporting to the grid by rooftop solar causes cost doing each kilowatt to be put back on rooftop solar exporter. The mad environmentalists stopped previous large coal power generation during Yahapalanya government, and country will never get out trouble until new large scale 24 hours operations capable baseload generation is built.

4 3

Hsemar P Tuesday, 11 February 2025 08:02 AM

CEB = Corrupted Electricty Board would be the best fit. Who would porpose coal power plant when you can harnest energy through solar? may be there's a money making motive behind this plan...

2 3

wickrama Wijayasiri Tuesday, 11 February 2025 08:14 AM

Investigate how this plant was built and the kickbacks received by the top politicians. It was ultimately built by a company who has never built a plant of similar kind.

2 7

Johan Tuesday, 11 February 2025 08:22 AM

Where are those failed heroes who were boasting themselves as saviours of the SL Economy recovery.Have they done only temporary jobs just to keep the country going on, and a minor damage affecting entire Sri Lanka

3 1

Dilakshan Seneviratne Tuesday, 11 February 2025 08:27 AM

This expert appears to be one heavily biased towards renewables, that’s fine. The fact is that for a fault at Panadura substation, the power system control system should have automatically isolated that part of the system, which appears to have not happened due to whatever reason. Consequent automatic isolation of upstream loads, probably caused Coal Generators to trip. Bemoaning the past adds no value, we know the issues Norachchalai had at its inception, but it has served the country well since then, and is of very low cost to run, which helped reduce our bills. At the time, renewables were too expensive for a poor country like SL. Also, transmission power lines are built to connect large power plants with loads. Sri Lanka’s biggest solar source is rooftop solar remember. LNG which previous governments failed to get is being fast tracked by this government.

3 7

Jude Tuesday, 11 February 2025 10:28 AM

LNG plant was opposed by NPP when they were in the opposition. Many protests were held by them.

3 5

Dilakshan Seneviratne Tuesday, 11 February 2025 11:53 AM

So what? That’s ok, some people do live in the past. NPP had LNG in their policy before the elections and now they will implement it asap.

7 2

NPP will give viable energy solutions to the nation Tuesday, 11 February 2025 08:28 AM

Hey Mr Asoka Abeygunawardana, who opposed the attempt to introduce LNG plants during Mr Gotabaya Rajapakse's regime? It is the Marxist-led hooligans in our country. Remember?

3 5

Dilakshan Seneviratne Tuesday, 11 February 2025 10:59 AM

There appears to be very few marxists left in SL now right? Are you happy about it? However, there seems to be a lot who shout and write like hooligans right?

2 2

Leo Tuesday, 11 February 2025 08:34 AM

Dear Renewable Energy Ministry, Asoka Abeygunawardana, yes certain proper steps were not taken. So instead of talking about what should have been done, and as you are now in power, make sure the same mistakes are not repeated. Stop talking and start working.

0 4

Engineer Mon Key Tuesday, 11 February 2025 11:02 AM

Oh yeah? What about the Monkey theory? Now CEB is trying to protect their relatives. The real culprit monkey from Panadura escapes without a trial thanks to relatives in the government. This is what happens when a apes form a government. Brace for more power cuts you humans!

0 2

dotv Tuesday, 11 February 2025 02:41 PM

The Minister heads the department ..but the expertise is provided by public officials . ..Listening to some of the COPE committee meetings and the feeble answers given by the public officials in high places, one wonders how prepared they are to meet with , any sudden situation like a power outage ?Any other part of the world the CEO would have tendered his resignation for failing the people .An island wide outage is a serious situation ..and in the context of the understanding of the general public the finger points at the government in power .

0 0

Subramaniam Tuesday, 11 February 2025 05:08 PM

CEB will have a power strategy for the country based on supply and demand. Coal fired power plants are installed to provide the base electrical demand. They cannot be switched on and off quickly and are unsuitable for coping with temporary increases in demand. LNG generators are more flexible and can be brought on line relatively quickly. Hydro power is most flexible as it can be brought on line within seconds to deal with sudden power spikes. It literally is the time it takes the water to get down from the reservoir to the generator. CEB has a responsibility to manage the input from solar panels. That is why you have to get approval from CEB to connect solar panels to the Grid. When someone wants to install and connect solar panels, CEB assesses the local cable infrastructure, transformer capacity, local demand and decides on whether to give the permit. Therefore CEB has complete control over connection of solar panels and cannot blame anyone else for load imbalances.

0 0

Saman Tuesday, 11 February 2025 05:34 PM

In Sri Lanka everyone is an expert in everything! At last now we have a policy driven govenment. I hope the govenment will establish teams of 'true experts" who will develop technical stratergy and forward planning to overcome the various issues, not only in electricity, but in every necessary field. While it is OK to critisise constructively, public should support policy drivern governance.

1 0

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