Importance of Sampur Coal Power Plant

Learn from past

“Power-cuts will be imposed from end of this month as hydro-power generation has been hit by a prolonged drought”. Walking back in our memory lane to 1994 era, this is a common heading in most of the newspapers. If I take you to the power generation situation in Sri Lanka exactly 10 years back, year 1994, 95% of total generation was made out of hydro-power whereas only the rest was made out of thermal power.
(More info: http://energyzee.blogspot.com/2013/04/norochcholai-coal-power-plant-in.html)

According to this circumstance, hydro power generation alone was not enough to accommodate the electricity demand during the severe drought period. Therefore, to overcome the impending power shortages, an idea for establishing a coal power plant had been emerging. Eventually that idea became a reality through Norochcholai coal power plant which was commenced in 2006 and first phase with 300MW added to the national grid in 2011.

Requirement of Sampur

Since existing total installed capacity in the country including Norochcholai power plant, would not be enough to cater the ever increasing electricity demand in the future, a new coal power plant with 500MW was suggested to establish in Sampur, Trincomalee.

With the contribution of both Norochcholai and Sampur coal power plants, the percentage of coal power electricity generation from the total electricity generation in Sri Lanka can be increased up to 55%. If the Sampur coal power plant cannot be completed and linked to the national grid by 2016, the operation of diesel power plants which is reduced to a certain amount now, has an inevitable room for increasing and that would lead to an uneconomical effect to the electricity pricing of the country.

Agreements with NTPC  

This project is a joint venture agreement between the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC) of India. Both parties signed to the initial agreements in 2006 and implementation of the power plant would be carried out with equal equity (50:50) contributions by NTPC and CEB.

The memorandum of understanding for  the  Sampur Coal Power Project  will be signed later in June once the cabinet approval is granted to the cabinet paper which has already been submitted.
           
Profile of NTPC

NTPC Limited is the leading electricity utility company in India. Based in New Delhi, NTPC currently has an electricity power generation capacity of 41,184 MW and it has plans to reach 17,000 MW by 2017. Apart from the core business of engineering, construction and operation of power generating plants, NTPC is engaged in providing consultancy to power utilities both local and overseas.

Reasons for the delay

The original reason for the delay of the commencement of this project was not having a agreed Power Purchase Rate in the agreement arrived at by the NTPC and the CEB in September 2011.  The reasons for this disagreement were excessive heat rate(the quantity of coal required to generate a unit of electricity)  and higher operational and maintenance cost involved with the power plant.

The heat rate was stated as 2,600 kilo calories to generate a unit of power from the plant and this was not in acceptable level according to energy experts in the field. The excessive heat rate would result in the coal plant maintaining a low efficiency level and sought changes to a more moderate level.

Current situation

But after the rounds of  negotiations which CEB had with NTPC,  they have agreed to reduce the heat rate  down to 2,160 kilo calories during the first year of operation.The NTPC has also agreed to reduce the Operation and Maintenance cost  up to a certain extent during these negotiations.

Will coal reserves be diminished in the future?

Frankly saying, we should agree with the fact  that coal mines will be diminished one day  and  producing electricity using coal power would no longer be a viable option in the future. But until then coal would be the most economical source to meet the rapid increase of electricity demand. Some may argue this future increase of demand might satisfied through renewable sources like wind and solar more economically and environmentally friendly. But it is actually not when capacity cost and reliability come into play.
(More info: http://energyzee.blogspot.com/2013/01/norochcholai-power-plant-coal-vs.html)

Repeating the history 

Due to the dragging of the implementation of Norochcholai CPP, we had to experience power cuts in the recent past. Repeating the history, implementation of Sampur CPP is getting delayed over the past few years. So there is no wonder if we have to face another power-cut or a price hike by 2017.

Reference

http://www.hcicolombo.org/index.php?option=com_news&task=detail&id=3354661
http://www.ceylontoday.lk/27-25733-news-detail-sampur-to-lose-big.html
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2013/02/17/indias-entry-into-lankas-power-sector-delayed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTPC_Limited
http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/29576-sampur-agreement-likely-to-be-signed-this-month.html
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SM71812.jpg

Article By: Harshani Amanda
Contributors: Shamil Rupasinghe and Akila Pramod

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Posted in: Power System