Sri Lanka coal plant: Chinese designer says accusations unfair

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:44:52

22 Aug, 2012 18:15:09

Aug 22, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Chinese built coal plant which is breaking down repeatedly has been over-used without scheduled maintenance but had still saved billions of rupees to the power utility, its designer has said.

Zhao Wenxue, from the Northwest Electric Design Institute which designed the plant said in a statement that most of the accusations leveled against the plant, built by China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) are unfair.

The plant had been well designed but had been operated from March 2011 without annual maintenance he pointed out.

"According to normal practice in China, a thermal plant should undergo a one month maintenance period annually," Wenzue was quoted as saying in a statement.

"Only then can the unit be more reliable and efficient and expected to perform well.

"The lack of rain at the hydro catchment areas in Sri Lanka over the past several months posed a threat to the power generation around the island.

"The Norochcholai coal power plant was forced to work beyond its required limits and keep supplying electricity to the whole country.

"With the lack of rain and in an attempt to avoid burdening the public with power cuts the Ceylon Electricity Board had meanwhile decided to postpone the annual maintenance of the Norochcholai coal power plant."

Another source familiar with the matter said the plant is still within a 'defect notification period' which usually follow a large engineering project before being finally handed over to the client.

A coal plant cannot be compared to a hydro or diesel plant as it is more complex and problems also crop up when a plant is shut down and re-started. Some problems have to be repaired while the plant is still in operation Wenzue said.

Some of the technical aspects of such a plant also need to be maintained and repaired while the plant is in operation.

Wenzue said CEB and CMEC engineers were working around the clock to fix the problems.

"The Norochcholai coal power plant had past all the performance tests and it was in operation continuously from February 2012 till end of July 2012," he said.

"Questioning the quality of the equipment used in the project and pointing fingers at CMEC is without basis.

"The Norochcholai coal power plant is not as bad as one makes it look. It is just overused, tired and needs a break to rest like any other equipment does."

Analysts says that a coal plant would in any case be expected to run about 80 percent of the time (plant factor) which would allow the 300MW plant to generate about 2,100 GigWatt hours of energy a year.

During the past year the plant had generated 1,875 GigaWatt hours (millions of units of electricity) at a cost of 6.67 rupees a unit totaling 12.5 billion rupees.

To generate the same amount from a combined cycle plant at 15.79 rupees a unit would cost 29.6 billion rupees.

Assuming 80 percent of that energy came from a combined cycle and 20 percent from gas turbines (at 25.93 rupees a unit) it would have cost the CEB 33.4 billion rupees to generate the same amount of energy, Wenzue said.

Following the ground breaking ceremony in July 2007, on a request by Sri Lanka, the Chinese government had asked the builders to complete the project one year ahead of schedule.

"We agreed and mobilized our teams including a skilled workforce for early completion of the project ahead of the scheduled date," Wenzue said.

The design build transfer project was financed with a Chinese loan. The coal plant was long overdue.

However concerns have been raised about the way the deal was closed between the ruling classes of Sri Lanka and China through a so-called 'government to government deal' without open tendering.

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READER COMMENT(S)

15. Gunda Aug 28

It is my experience that the Consultants of a project takes the side of the people who pay them and in such case CEB. If very high officials in CEB do want to hurry with the project without proper testing at the commissioning the Consultant also leaves it to the decision makers with every day of non operation CEB incurs high cost Private Thermal Generation with more import of Liquid fuel into the country.

It is sure we all will pay for all these with higher Electricity Tariff. This may be good for renewable energy promoters. Already high consumption Domestic consumers benefit by installing Rooftop Solar PV.

14. Ex Pat Aug 25

LOL there is a sinhala saying "telling stories to konde bendapu cheena".
It seems the "cheena" is telling us cock n bull stories. Just step away from all the technical details and take a simple example.

If a person buys a brand new car and it breaks down , i mean seriously breaks down , after 6 months of use what will that person do ??? And if breaks down again , will he still use it ???

Now this power plant is brand new , or is there a doubt??? It seems some people got us a raw deal without knowing what they were buying (like the hedging deal where morons agreed to technicalities not knowing head or tails about the transaction) or some people colluded to make a fast buck knowing very well its a dud.

Either way its the public who got duped, coz the powers that be who sign these deals dont pay a cent in tax !!!! aha that is THE MIRACLE OF ASIA :)

13. owllll Aug 24

PPPP...FCB without Aux possible!? I doubt. If that happened then turbine will surely sustain damage? Substandard material will compound problem and cause serious possibly irrepairable damage.Is this what happened? Shut down without aux?

12. ppppppppppppppp Aug 24

There are more defects in this plant instead of improper material used.

There are more outstanding commissioning events for plant safety. Therefore it can not go to safe shutdown.

As an example resonly tripped the plant, due to both transmission line tripped but the plant was not safe shutdown. It was not fast cut back activated,and also aux. power not activated. Because FCB not commissioned yet.

11. Amila Aug 23

Hi, I am not defending china firm, but I know one thing, coal firing in such a plant is different from combined cycle and other types. The wear rate is extremely high in coal related specially when coal used in powdered form (Using a coal mill). Normally I agree with that at least this plant has to be shut down at least 2 weeks per every 9 months operation. However there are good plants designed in Germany or European countries, but the investment has to be considered when installing such. So my experience with Chinese plants/machinery is get down them, run then, shut down whenever required.

However if we have enough plants, or more than 600MW of such nature, we can run it for base load and we can utilize hydro power for peak or emergency. However my conclusion is Chinese plants are cheaper to operate, and overall cost is less compared with European plants. However you need lot of maintenance and well trained technical staff to run this. But it may be still cheaper.

10. Jack Point Aug 23

Some excellent questions here. A few more to add: 2. Who bears the cost of unloading the coal, mid sea? Is it in the costing of the operating cost?
3. What do the barges do when the weather is bad?

9. Leelananda Aug 23

China engineer is bullfighting the Sriankans.
I am working in thermal power plant, combine cycle. it operates through out the year only stooping for maintenance 8 days for every 8000 hours of operation.

8. owllll Aug 23

I have no intention of going into a technical analysis of all possible faults but I cannot resist pointing out that Ranasinghe has given us a good example of the kind of issues related to materials. He describes only the problem of metal corrosion. There is also metal expansion and distortion under pressure and other factors related to the materials used and worst of all the wrong metal in the wrong place can lead to cracks and fractures as well.

A turbine and its entire array of delicately balanced bearings is a massive moving rotary structure of significant weight that demands careful design.

We are dealing with our having been saddled with a power plant that appears to have a defective design, sub standard and possibly mis-matched materials, and improper construction. This is a sinister development that undermines our attempts to generate the energy that we need. If this sinister development originates in China then Wimaladasas position that the Chinese State is “Friendly” (whatever that may mean) towards the Sri Lankan State is not tenable. A state that saddles us with a defective plant of such strategic importance can under no circumstances be considered friendly towards us.

7. jay gunasekara Aug 23

This plant was a used, reconditioned piece of junk the Chinese palmed off to corrupt SL officials. The Chinese know very well to oil their way in third world countries and have a poor record of of transparency just like the Srilankan Govt.This is highway robbery between govt officials and the poor people have to pay the bill.

6. Ranasinghe Aug 22

How many times this plant was shut down due to constant breakdowns. If so how one calculate annual maintenance.Also some parts are corroded and had to be replaced. I live near sea And My A/C unit did not corrode for the last five years.

If so how come even though this plant situated near sea get corroded within one year. I advise government to appoint an independent plant design and manufacturing company to check the reliability,durability and efficiency of this plant.

If the maintenance and the constant breakdown cost is too high, it's better to terminate the rest of the project now it self.

5. Pragmatist Aug 22

The practice of scheduled maintenance for large systems is a standard accepted practice in the developed world. Even banks periodically shut down web access by customers to the bank computer system, usually in the middle of the night, so that they can perform maintenance.

If the documentation for operating the Chinese power plant mentioned how critical maintenance was to ensure reliability, CEB should have paid more attention to that. In most developing countries, the importance of maintenance is often ignored by officials responsible for public infrastructure, not realizing that it is a penny wise pound foolish decision.

4. N.Wimaladasa Aug 22

Alligation against China power plant are baseless.Is behind sinster move of who want to undermine our vital interset of Sri lankan enegry developement projects.We need power supply for our people's daily life and thier survival. China is friendly country with people of Sri lankan.We don't want loose such Nation at all.

3. owllll Aug 22

1. I would like to know how many coal fired power plants this Northwest Electric Design Institute has designed, how many of them have been built, how many are still in working condition and how many of them have to be shut down every eleven months leaving consumers without power for a month every year.

2. I would like to know the same regarding this China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC).

3. This is not the first time that the plant in Sri Lanka has broken down so blaming the breakdown on our failure to give it its supposedly required annual vacation of one month, does not make any sense.

4. A description of what this annual maintenance consists of and the original plans made as to how to substitute its out put for a full month every year may contribute to the credibility of this claim.

5. February to July is just six months of continuous operation and I would like to know whether a guarantee can be given that this plant will last five years at the least.

6. If the nature of this breakdown is demonstrated (not stories told) that will make clear whether this plant has a future or not.

7. My position is that the plant has been badly designed as well as constructed with sub standard materials, I remain to be convinced otherwise and until such time I maintain that this plant will have to be scrapped or redesigned and rebuilt.

8. It is best that the government appoint at least three independent teams to study the design, construction and materials used and explain in detail the nature and causes of these frequent breakdowns as well as recommend remedies for them if available so that a decision to scrap the plant can be made if necessary instead of throwing more money at it.

9. Who made how much over this deal is not the issue since in Sri Lanka all of us from humble office assistants to pompous chairpersons all make money on every deal we handle. The issue is ensuring a steady stream of power because otherwise there will be no more deals to be made.

2. aj Aug 22

May be what he is saying is true. Seems to know what he is talking about.

Especially the comment about fixing problems without shutting down the plant.

1. electricnut Aug 22

For a moment I won't dispute the comment! They can say the plant has been overused. But why make this comment now. Have they given these conditions for plant operation at the outset?

What reply can the Ceylon Electricity Board give now to this disclosure of plant being overused? I think everybody in this scandal is playing cat & mouse games.