Breakdown at the Norochcholai Power Plant, again : Minister assures NO Power Cuts

COLOMBO (News 1st); A generator unit at the Norochcholai Power Plan in Sri Lanka has suffered a breakdown.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera tweeted that he was informed by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) of a breakdown in unit 3 of Norochcholai power plant.

He said that Unit 3 was due to undergo major overhaul maintenance in April 2023.

The Minister noted that in order to ensure an uninterrupted power supply, CEB owned Diesel & Fuel Oil Power plants will be used to generate electricity.

He affirmed that there will be NO power cuts due to the breakdown.

This is not the first time that a breakdown was reported from the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant.

In August 2022, Sri Lanka decided to extend the daily power cuts to three-hours per day citing a malfunction at the Generator One of the Norochcholai Power Plant.

The daily power cuts lasted until late January of 2023.

The Norochcholai Coal Power Plant comprises three generators, and each one generates 300 MW with an output of 900 MW to the National Grid.

A portion of the generated electricity was used for operations at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant and one generator could only add 270 MW of electricity to the National Grid.

The Norochcholai coal power plant has been facing several breakdowns since it was commissioned in 2017