Norochcholai will close by 31 December!
The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union (CEBEU) has announced that operations at the Lakwijaya Coal Plant in Norochchole will be completely stopped in January 2023 as coal stocks will be completely depleted by 31 December 2022.
Speaking to the media yesterday (20), CEBEU President Nihal Weeraratne claimed: “By 31 December, all operations will be halted at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant. The whole country will be at a standstill.”
“No matter how many consignments of coal arrive, they will have to be at sea. Let’s say it takes five days to unload 60,000 metric tonnes (MT) of coal, then only six shipments can be unloaded in a month. Orders for coal should be placed on time, and the ships should also be unloaded at a specific time. It would be impossible to unload 24 ships in January.” so said by CEB Chairman N.S. Ilangakoon responding to a question posed by the media.
Last month, the CEBEU stated that of the 38 ships carrying 60,000 MT of coal, which are expected to reach Sri Lanka by April 2023, 10 ships should have reached the country by then, but only four ships had arrived, and therefore warned of over 10-hour long power cuts from July to October of next year (2023) due to the failure to procure coal on time.
