Sri Lankan opposition parliamentarian D. V. Chanaka has blamed substandard coal used at the Norochcholai power plant for a nationwide electricity blackout on the 17th, alleging that the plant’s shutdown has forced the government to spend an additional Rs 1.3 billion a day on electricity generated by private diesel power stations.
Chanaka, a member of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), made the allegations during the ‘Salakuna’ political discussion programme broadcast on Hiru TV. He disputed the government’s explanation that a fault at the Upper Kotmale power plant had caused the nationwide outage and accused the authorities of failing to maintain sufficient emergency generating capacity to prevent a system-wide collapse.
The MP said the Upper Kotmale plant had experienced a breakdown during the daytime on the preceding day, arguing that the incident had no bearing on the nationwide blackout on the 17th. His remarks directly contradicted the explanation attributed to the minister, although no response from the government or the minister was included in the source report.
Chanaka said standard procedures for managing the national electricity grid required an additional reserve capacity equivalent to 10 per cent of demand to be available for immediate deployment in the event of a sudden disruption. At a demand level of 2,800 megawatts, this would mean maintaining 280MW of reserve capacity, he said.
He alleged that the National System Control Centre had no such reserve available when the output of Norochcholai’s first generating unit plunged from 178MW to 5MW. According to Chanaka, an operational reserve of 280MW could have helped prevent the entire electricity system from collapsing even if the first generating unit had failed.
The MP attributed the Norochcholai shutdown to excessive pressure inside the boiler drum, which he said resulted from burning low-quality coal and caused a diaphragm component to rupture. He argued that the poor-quality fuel had generated excessive ash, leaving engineers and other plant employees occupied with removing deposits rather than carrying out proper maintenance.
“Because of the substandard coal, excessive amounts of ash accumulate every day. Engineers and workers had to spend their time removing ash instead of carrying out proper maintenance. Eventually, the diaphragm burst because it could no longer withstand the pressure,” Chanaka said.
He added that restoring the system to normal operation would require the plant to cool down over a period of five to seven days. The shutdown had resulted in the loss of the facility’s entire 810MW generating capacity, he said.
The resulting electricity shortfall had created an opportunity for private diesel power producers, Chanaka alleged, claiming that the additional expenditure on diesel-generated electricity amounted to Rs 1.3 billion daily. He described the emergency purchases as a major commercial racket and said money paid by consumers affected by power cuts was flowing into the hands of private diesel plant owners.
The allegations, including the claimed daily expenditure and the asserted link between coal quality and the plant failure, were presented by Chanaka during the television programme. The source report did not provide independent technical findings, procurement records or a response from the electricity authorities to substantiate or contest his claims.
Chanaka also accused the government of delaying the disclosure of the facts surrounding the blackout by saying that a month would be needed to establish what had happened. He alleged that the authorities were concealing the truth and issuing contradictory statements about the cause of the nationwide disruption.
