Sri Lanka eyes LNG-fired power plant, axes coal plant plans

Sri Lanka decided to ditch the plans to build a 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant and turn to an LNG-fired option, according to the country’s petroleum minister Chandima Weerakkody.

Weerakkody told Reuters, the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena met with India’s prime minister Narendra Modi over the weekend and offered to switch from coal to LNG in the plans to build the power plant.

The project for the $500 million plant was finalised in 2011 with the agreement between Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) of Sri Lanka and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

However, coal-fired power plant, proposed for the eastern port city of Trincomalee, faced sturdy opposition from the local residents and environmental groups since the plans were announced in 2006. The project is a part of Sri Lanka’s push to increase its power generation capacity.

Due to the recent change in plans, it is unclear which Indian companies would be selected as partners for the project, especially since Sri Lanka has no LNG import infrastructure in place.

Sri Lanka already has one coal-fired power plant set up with a $1.4 billion loan from China, however, the 900-megawatt facility has undergone frequent repairs.

LNG World News Staff