Chinese firm to build Sri Lanka hydro plant

Ceylon Electricity Board has awarded a contract to China National Electric Equipment Corporation to build a 35MW hydro power plant.

The run-of-the-river plant known as the Broadlands project will be constructed on Sri Lanka's Kelani River. The project is scheduled to be connected to the grid by 2014 and is estimated to cost $82 million.

The CEB also required the bidder to arrange financing. The project will be 90 per cent financed by the Industrial and Construction Bank of China on a 15-year floating rate loan at 220 basis points above the London interbank offered rate and will also include three years grace. The remaining 10 per cent funds will come from state-run People's Bank.
The plant is expected to generate 126GWh of energy a year. The project involves the building of a 114m long, 24m high gravity dam across the Maskeli Oya tributary of the Kelani River complex at Polpitiya.

Another smaller diversion weir, 48m long and 19m high, will be built across the Kehelgamu Oya and water brought through an 850m tunnel to the main reservoir. The main tunnel to the generators will be 3.2km long.
The Broadlands project is the last plant in the Laxapana cascade power station complex on the Kelani River system which was started 50 years ago.

Speaking to the media after the signing the agreement for the Broadlands Hydro Power Project between the Ceylon Electricity Board and the China National Electric Equipment Corporation, Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka said the CEB”s priority right now is to cut down the projected loss for the year 2010 by half.