Colombo is not seeking to renegotiate the contentious renewable vitality venture with Adani Green, a top Sri Lankan official mentioned, every week after the corporate abruptly pulled out of a wind farm initiative within the island’s Northern Province.
Adani Green — which had pledged an funding of $ 442 million in wind power vegetation in Mannar and Pooneryn — knowledgeable Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment [BOI] in a letter dated February 12,2025, that it could “respectfully withdraw” from the venture, whilst the federal government sought a decrease tariff for power buy. In a media assertion on the choice, a spokesperson of the Adani Group mentioned: “We remain committed to Sri Lanka and are open to future collaboration if the Government of Sri Lanka so desires.”
Also learn: Cannot justify Adani’s ‘excessive tariff’, Sri Lanka’s President Dissanayake tells Parliament
However, indicating that the outreach on such a future funding should come from the corporate’s facet, and not Sri Lanka’s, Okay.T.M. Udayanga Hemapala, Secretary to the Ministry of Energy, instructed The Hindu on Thursday: “The company has decided to withdraw from the project, it is their call. We are now in the process of addressing the legal requirements after they decided to close the project. But if the company wishes to return, and commits an investment through the BOI, we are open to talking to them based on our position that the tariff must be lower,” he mentioned. While the federal government is eager to usher in overseas investments to Sri Lanka, it could not foyer any particular investor, he added. “We welcome all investors through proper channels, they must follow due process. We will ensure that the investments are beneficial to our people.”
Citing ongoing instances at Sri Lankan courts difficult the Adani power venture, Secretary Hemapala mentioned the petitions had been based mostly on three most important issues: whether or not the venture was to be thought of “Government-to-Government”, the validity of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) undertaken, and the power-purchasing tariff.
Adani Green’s latest determination to withdraw from the venture got here weeks after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Cabinet revoked a 2024 power buying settlement — signed by the predecessor President Ranil Wickremesinghe administration — in accordance to which Sri Lanka was to buy power at $0.0826, or 8.26 cents, per kWh from Adani Green Energy. The Cabinet determination was in keeping with President Dissanayake’s view that Adani Green’s tariff for the venture was excessive , and went towards his authorities’s said purpose of bringing down the electrical energy tariff by 30 % within the subsequent 5 years. Further, the Cabinet had appointed a committee to reevaluate the venture. In response, a spokesman of the Adani Group instructed the media on January 24, 2024, that the Sri Lankan authorities’s determination to reevaluate the tariff was a part of a “standard review process”, and categorically denied the venture was cancelled as had been reported by some media. But, in simply over a fortnight, Adani Green withdrew its funding.
Sampur photo voltaic plant
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has cleared a proposal to arrange photo voltaic power vegetation in Sampur, within the japanese Trincomalee district, in a three way partnership of the governments of Sri Lanka and India, via the Ceylon Electricity Board and National Thermal Power Corporation of India. The vegetation, of fifty MW and 70 MW capability, would come up in two phases, in accordance to a press release issued by the Department of Government Information on Thursday. The determination seems to revisit an previous venture envisaged through the time of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration. In March 2022, the NTPC signed an settlement with CEB to collectively arrange a 100 MW photo voltaic power plant in Sampur, a decade after a joint coal power venture deal on the identical location was signed and subsequently scrapped.
Published – February 21, 2025 02:06 am IST
