Adani Group still keen on renewable power project in Sri Lanka

The Adani Group is still keen to get Adani Green Energy’s $1-billion renewable energy power project in Sri Lanka back on its agenda, sources said. In February, the company had said it had decided to withdraw from the project, but it has maintained a foot in the door, as both sides are likely to come to an agreement on the tariffs to be charged, sources with knowledge of the ongoing developments said.

Talks and negotiations on the tariffs are still on and a mutually-agreeable tariff rate will soon be settled on, said the sources. Around 7 cents per kWh has been tentatively suggested, while Sri Lanka had earlier asked for 5-6 cents per kWh compared to the originally-proposed 8.26 cents for the 20-year power purchase agreement.

Work on the project could begin as early as June, sources indicated provided all the preliminaries and paperwork could be concluded by them. The Indian government is also understood to be in favour of the project going ahead in the island country, which it sees as a strategic investment, the sources said.

The Adani Group did not reply to an e-mail sent seeking clarification on the project.

Discussions between Adani Green and Sri Lankan government officials, including those from Ceylon Electricity Board, had broken down over tariffs to be charged for the 484-MW renewable energy wind farms at Mannar and Pooneryn. The project had associated transmission lines and additional 220 kv and 400 kv transmission network expansion.

Adani Green has already spent $5 million on pre-development activities for the project. Sources pointed out that while the company had written to Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment about its decision to withdraw from the project, it had taken no legal steps as such to abort it altogether. It also left open a window for future collaborations saying that it would always be available if there were any development opportunities in Sri Lanka.

The project has also received most of the regulatory clearances, barring environmental approval in Mannar.

The project and the investment, which had been initiated during the previous regime in Sri Lanka, received a setback when the government under the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake appointed a committee to review the project and aim for a lower tariff than had been proposed.

Source: The Hindu
--Agencies