A nations' strength turns into power at Upper Kothmale – President

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A nations' strength turns into power at Upper Kothmale – President


Friday, 05 November 2010
What goes in this historic tunnel is not only water, but our strength. What is transformed into electricity is our courage. The ability to take bold decisions leads the way to sustainable development and Upper Kothmale hydro power station is a solution to the future demands for electricity said President Mahinda Rajapaksa during an inspection tour of the Upper Kothmale tunnel and power station early this morning.
"The dawn of development was able to awaken cities that were asleep. The Thalawakele town is one such awakened place as a new town with cinemas, markets and modern high ways designed as whole modern town," the President said.President Rajapaksa said the whole country will have electricity by 2012 and Sri Lanka is one of the countries which provide electricity 24 hours.The public can view the 12.9 km length tunnel which is the longest tunnel in Sri Lanka on November 5, 6 and 7 from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm. Transport and security will be provided to the public. Access to the tunnel will be limited at a time to prevent congestion.Electricity generated by this project (150 MW) will be added to the national grid by December next year. The total cost of the project is Rs 44 billion. The Sri Lankan Government provided Rs 10 billion and the Japanese Government provided Rs 34 billion. This year the country burnt around 9,132 million units of power. It is estimated that this number will go up to 9,554 million next year. The Upper Kotmale Project will provide five percent of this requirement. It annually provides 409 GW hours of electricity, he told the briefing at the Government Information Department yesterday.The project will save Rs 8 billion per year. It has no negative impact on the environment.The construction of the project is done in five phases and nearly 74 per cent of the construction of the first phase has been completed while, 76 percent of the second phase, 79 percent of the third phase 57 percent of the fourth and 54 percent of the fifth phase are now completed.This is the run of the river hydro power project which was conceived with the preparation of a master plan for hydroelectric development in the Mahaweli Basin in 1968. The concept was further studied in 1985-1987 when the Japanese Government funded a feasibility study to examine hydropower options in the upper part of the Kotmale Oya.A dam is located close to the Talawakelle town with a height of 35.5m and a crest length of 180m and an upstream surge tank 12m in diameter and 98m high with a restricted opening located on the crest of the power house.An underground powerhouse is located at Niyamgamdora to house two units of 77,000 kW turbines, two vertical axis three phase 88,000 kVA generators, two 3-phase, transformers and a 220kV Gas Insulator Switchgear (GIS) substation.