Lighting Jaffna Peninsula

The power supply network to the Jaffna peninsula was completely destroyed by the terrorists, after the commencement of the Indian Army’s ‘Pawan’ offensive, following the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord in 1987. Since then the North has been disconnected from the national grid. During this time Jaffna peninsula was powered up by means of Agriko and Nothern Power Plants as an isolated network from the national grid. But with the commissioning of Killinochchi grid substation on 25th September 2012 Jaffna peninsula was re-connected to the national grid after a lapse of 25 years.

Marking another landmark achievement in stabilizing electricity supply to the Jaffna Pennisula, a 24 MW Heavy Furnace Oil Thermal Power Plant was officially commissioned on last 1st of January 2013.The power generation of this power plant is done through three diesel engines each having a capacity of producing 8.6MW of power. Ministry of power and energy says it has been possible to meet all the electricity needs of the Jaffna district following the building of this new power plant in Chunnakam.

As per the data we have received, there are about 121,000 electricity consumers in the Jaffna peninsula and till the end of last year; only 90% were provided electricity. Because prevailing 33kV line from Kilinochchi to Chunnakam has a low capacity and it can accommodate only a portion of Jaffna Pennisula. But with the establishment of this new power plant, it has now been possible to fulfill the total electrification requirement of the people in Jaffna peninsula.

This power plant is built at a total cost of Rs. 3500 million, is solely on local investment by Lanka Electricity Company (LECO) on behalf of Ceylon Electricity Board. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) was done by the local engineers while the design and installation was handled by the turn key contractor Lakdhanavi Ltd, which is a subsidiary of LTL Holdings. Currently operation and maintenance (O&M) are  handled by CEB with the assistance of Lakdhanavi Ltd, and It’ll completely be handed over to CEB after ensuring reliability of Power plant.

The advantage of using Heavy Furnace Oil (HFO) over diesel is that it will reduce the main operational cost in long-term continuous operation. The cost per unit of power generation through Heavy Furnace Oil is around Rs.15.90 whereas the earlier cost to generate a unit through diesel was Rs.19.10.

We believe that, with the commissioning of this new Heavy Fuel Thermal Power Station, the older high cost thermal power stations can be decommissioned systematically. The contract period of the thermal power plant Agriko ended on 31st December 2012, and hopefully its contract period will not be renewed. Furthermore with the establishment of these CEB owned power stations, the colossal loss of Rs.2800 million which the government has to bear to purchase power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) can now been reduced to around Rs.1500 million.

As we all know with the liberation of the LTTE controlled areas in the Northern Province, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) envisages commencing development activities in those areas. Accordingly, steps have already been taken to construct a grid substation in Chunnakam and commence construction work of the 132kV Kilinochchi - Chunnakam Transmission Line. Upon construction of above couple of projects, distribution loss of Jaffna Peninsula will be reduced drastically.

This is because, it is highly essential to have an uninterrupted power supply to uplift the livelihood of people in Jaffna. With that aim, all these projects were given high priority and as per the CEB this is the first heavy fuel thermal power station that has built within a short span of around six months. So it is a good example to show that Sri Lanka as a country; is taking its every effort to restore the lives of those who were battered by the brutal war.

Article By: Shan Pathirana

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Posted in: Power System