Sri Lanka is set to face a serious energy crisis pushing the country into a power crisis with countrywide ten hour power cuts if the government fails to import required stock of coal to run the Norochcholai power plant soon in double quick time, the Ministry of Energy said.
Currently, the stock of coal in the plant is sufficient only till October 25th, 2022.After October 25th, sufficient coal stocks should be provided for power generation at the Norochcholai coal-fired power plant.
The government will be calling for an immediate tender on Tuesday (Sep. 27) to procure coal for the Lakvijaya power plant in Norochcholai after the coal tender that was awarded on August 25 was cancelled, says General Manager of Lanka Coal Company, Namal Hewage.
This follows the stock market disclosure that Black Sands LLC has not managed to submit the performance bond before the stipulated timeline of September 8.
The time given to the company to deposit the performance bond related to the transaction lapsed recently and they have not deposited that bond either. Thus, the long-term tender for the supply of coal is now in serious crisis.
On Sep. 23, Minister of Power & Energy Kanchana Wijesekera announced that the selected supplier has pulled out after communicating the inability to perform the tender, while citing concerns about the impact on legal cases filed and payment guarantee risk.
Accordingly, the Lanka Coal Company will publish a new International Open Competitive Tender that will allow any suitable supplier that has the ability to provide Coal on a long-term credit basis.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet Spokesperson on Friday (23) revealed that a conspiracy is taking place to deprive the country of on-time coal imports.
Minister Bandula Gunawardena, the country’s cabinet spokesperson, said that a conspiratorial plan is afoot to deny the on-time coal delivery and to extend the power cuts.
Recently, bids were invited to contract a long-term supplier of Coal for Sri Lanka. Several companies submitted bids during the formal tender process and another company submitted bids outside the tender process.
After opening and evaluating the bids submitted outside the tender process, the proposals submitted in the formal tender process have been evaluated.
Ultimately, it was decided to award the long-term supply to the company that submitted bids via the proper tender process.
But the company that submitted bids outside the tender process had again submitted a bid at a lower price.
The Minister of Power and Energy recently revealed in Parliament that the said bidder also influenced the company that offered the tender.
The company that was awarded the tender has imposed several conditions for the supply of coal and they have not been able to fulfill those conditions as they agreed.
Currently, the company that supplies coal has to supply 21 more shipments.But the supply of those stocks is now in crisis due to the delay in payment.
But it was reported that the company has agreed to provide 50 percent of these 21 shipments on a pre-paid system.
In order to receive a stock of coal to the Norochcholai power plant before October 25th, a certain amount of money should be paid at least by next Monday.At least 95 million dollars is needed for 5 coal ships.
Accordingly, if the concerned company is not paid this amount or part of it by Monday, the country’s electricity supply will be in danger from the 25th of October 2022.
