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ECONOMYNEXT – India’s Adani wind power project has been facing continuous delay in Sri Lanka as a Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee (CANC) has been raising many concerns over the project components, two sources familiar with the deal said.
The $442 million project was given to the Indian firm as an unsolicited deal with Adani Green Energy was issued provisional approval for two wind projects of 286 MW in Sri Lanka’s northwestern Mannar and 234 MW in northern Pooneryn.
The delay in the approval process has angered India, Sri Lanka’s government officials have said.
This week, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera demied any delays in the project and said the cabinet has given greenlight to recruit a raft of technocrats to a committee that will assess the project.
However, sources familiarized with the negotiation said the project approval is facing some delay in the negotiation process of the CANC.
“Every time they (CANC) go through, they come up with some issues,” one source who has the knowledge of the CANC’s concerns told EconomyNext.
“Earlier it was the price and the CEB (Ceylon Electricity Board) was also against it. Now CANC has raised concerns over a 15% risk assessment on the project. They are not ok with that,” the source said.
He said President Ranil Wickremesinghe has asked to give priority for the project given it is a key project to secure adequate supply of energy with no foreign currency needed like in thermal energy generation using coal or fuel.
Another source said the CANC needs more time because it is the largest wind power project that will be implemented in Sri Lanka.
On Tuesday, Minister Wijesekera denied the delay claims and said Sri Lankan authorities received the Request for Proposal (RFP) only six weeks ago.
Sources at the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) have said the unit price of wind energy under Adani deal will cost 14 US cents (46 Sri Lankan rupees) and the CEB engineers have expressed that the unit cost is higher than the cost of a thermal energy unit.
The Adani wind power deal is one of the key projects granted to India, Sri Lankan neighbour which helped Sri Lanka when it faced foreign exchange crisis after declaring bankruptcy.
President Wickremesinghe last week justified the government decision of going for renewable energy projects and said coal and fuel power plants are preferred by some government officials as they can take “commissions” from those projects.
Adani project is seen as a reputational issue for India and government officials say the project has been directly pushed by India, which has said to buy excess power, if generated by Sri Lanka.
The second source said top Indian officials are in contact with the political leaders of Sri Lanka on the project implementation process.
Minister Wijesekara has said the project will go to cabinet again possibly in January after the CANC completes its evaluation. (Colombo/Dec 20/2023)
