Sri Lankan company to complete work on delayed 10MW wind power plants in Jaffna by end of the year
Sri Lanka’s Ceylex Engineering has reportedly stated that it will complete work on the delayed 10MW wind power plants in Jaffna before the end of the year. The project to set up two wind power plants that will comprise eight 2.5MW wind turbines at an estimated cost of Rs. 5 billion was delayed due to the inability to identify the proper land for the project.
According to reports, Ceylex Engineering won the international tender in August 2017 to build and operate the wind power plants, and supply power to Sri Lanka’s state utility Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).
The project was delayed because the CEB was unable to acquire land in Jaffna due to objections raised by the people living in the area.
“It’s difficult for a state institution to acquire private properties especially when owners don’t accept government valuations,” Nuhuman Marikkar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at LTL Holdings has been quoted as saying in the local media.
Ceylex is an affiliate to LTL Holdings, which is a unit of the state power utility CEB. The CEB holds a 63 percent stake of LTL while the remaining shares are held by management-led private investors who bought out a foreign investor.
“So the group decided to buy land in suitable areas which we will lease back to the CEB,” Marikkar has said.
Analysts have always said private power producers should be allowed to acquire land themselves in order to avoid bureaucratic delays, local media reports state.
Ceylex will sell electricity to the CEB at around Rs. 12.50 a unit.
OSL take:
The completion of the two wind power plants in Jaffna would address the power crisis in the Jaffna District. Given the Sri Lankan government’s interest in finding renewable energy solutions to address the country’s looming power crisis in 2020, interested foreign businesses/investors could explore investment opportunities in the power and energy sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20180319/Z_2 |