June 5, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run power utility has included natural gas in power generation planning studies for the first time, with prospects of gas being found in the country. In one study scenario where no coal plants after the current ones being planned for Trincomallee, the Ceylon Electricity Board’s long term generation plan considered a 250MegaWatt liquefied natural gas plant with a terminal from 2024.
It would be followed by a 250MW plant every year until 2032. The 2013-2032 long term generation plan also included nuclear power for the first time.
The CEB has earlier not used natural gas or imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) as it was considered too expensive compared to its least cost plan with coal.
The simulation found that the present value of the capital cost with no coal after 2019 will be 15.06 billion US dollars compared to the least plan meeting least cost regulations of 13.6 billion in discounted dollars.
LNG is still not in the base case planning scenario.
Special interest groups have been pushing for LNG as a power source in Sri Lanka for several years with high level political pressure but CEB planners had resisted the pressure su