Initiated by the CEB, the upper Kotmale hydro power plant was meant to generate 500GWh/annum of Electricity by sacrificing 4 waterfalls when it was first proposed. So you can easily imagine the degree of resistance received from environmentalists, ecologists, politicians and the local residents. In fact the project was completely stalled for quite some time after being proposed in 1994.
Thankfully, compromises have been made and according to the officials in about 3-4 years the powerplant will be up and running.
The 4 waterfalls have been stripped down to 1, but the engineers have manged to design it so that it will retain the bulk of the power which will roughly amount to 400GWh/annum. The St. Claire waterfall will receive water on an hourly basis, and the waterfall will flow for an average of 20 minutes. The CEB is even making a special viewing platform to admire the waterfall from, which according to them will take 20 minutes to trek, so quite conveniently the waterfall will be visible to us humans.They say that the natural flow of the waterfall will not be disturbed and hence the animals won't be affected as well.
There was a large tunnel being built by a Japanese firm. And the women were not allowed enter. In fact, even the Japanese women engineers are not allowed to enter. They believe that a tunnel is a woman, and that she will get angry in the proximity of another woman.
The project is underway with heavy environmental regulations. Even the dust from the trucks are washed off before they make their way to town.
An old wooden and deteriorated film hall which was going to be demolished by the construction will be rebuilt with all the facilities adorned and fully furnished. The same will be done for the Provincial Council and other town buildings that will be re-built.
The local residents are being resettled, each of the residents getting a proportionally larger and better house than they had. The residents also get to choose their own neighbors, whenever possible. Resettlement was also done in a way that would not disrupt the electoral sections. That had relieved much of the resistance.
So it's a healthy dose of regulation, resistance met with engineering and development to ensure that everyone benefits. Win-win situation all-round.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Upper Kotmale Power Plant Progress
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7 comments:
Interesting.....
Well considering the way things are done here.. let's hope it's done on time!
Wow...that's some good news...Interesting example of public pressure forcing the redesign...who was in charge of the EIR and overall design?
N, Have to ask the project manager. Will get back to you in a giffy..
All the studies were done by CEB with the help of a few consultancy firms. (http://www.ukhp.lk/ourconsultants.html)
Edit:
The power generated is roughly 400GWh per annum. I had written it as 400MW earlier.
This is getting dangerously geeky...was the EIR available for public review? I have no idea how the regulatory process works in SL so was just wondering...I'm just coming to grips with it out here...I'm just curious where the redesign was precipitated...was it one of the alternatives in the EIR?
took me a while to do some further reading into this.
Apparently under the National Environmental Act, the Central Environmental Authority handles the Environmental Impact Assessments. All EIA reports are kept open for 30 working days for public scrutiny and comment.
But note that the EIA has to be done by the Engineering firm doing the project and the Central Environmental authority just acts as a regulatory body that can reject the report for inconsistencies and not meeting requirements. ( for further reference have a look at http://www.cea.lk/EIA.htm)
So all the alternatives and redesign have to come from the Engineering firm.
The effectiveness of the process is debatable, but that's how it works.
according to the CEB Engineer
"It was capable of generating 528 GWh (Giga Watt Hours) or Million units of electricity per annum with 5 other tributary diversions namely Devon Oya, St. Andrew's Oya, Pundalu Oya, Puna Oya and Ramboda Oya along with the main intake of Kotmala Oya.
Now only Kotmala Oya is diverted and all other diversions are cancelled thanks to the ill advised and ill informed lobbying by interested parties .
Now the generation capability per year has dropped to 409 GWh - that is the sacrifice we had to do at enormous economic cost.
The studies all of them were done by CEB along with several consultancy groups I do not think any one is interested to know by person who they are if very keen o know I can give this information there is nothing confidential about it."
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