Page 6 - AsiaElec Week 08 2023
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AsiaElec GRID AsiaElec
India and Sri Lanka look to link
power grids
SRI LANKA THE governments of India and Sri Lanka are representative in New Delhi said in a media
to sign an agreement aimed at one day linking interview.
WHAT: their existing power grids. A focal point in the Sri Lankan recovery
Sri Lanka to generate In a still developing story made public is its potential energy resources, primarily in
and ship energy to by a senior Sri Lankan diplomat, the move the form of renewables.
southern India will help Colombo climb out of an extended This is particularly true in the north of the
period of economic malaise compounded in country from where a transmission cable The power line
WHY: the past year by irregular fuel supplies and is reportedly on the drawing board to ship
Colombo in dire need nationwide power cuts. energy produced on the island to Tamil Nadu with a capacity
of foreign capital, India It is a project that first saw the light of day in southern India.
needs power around ten years ago although little headway As such, a memorandum of understand- of around 1
has been made in the intervening years as Sri ing will be signed before the summer to help
WHAT NEXT: Lanka rebuilt following quarter of a century facilitate negotiations on the eventual linking GW would take
Power line construction of civil war. of the two grid systems Moragoda said. between two and
under 50km Palk Strait The government of Prime Minister Dinesh “We need to have more sources of foreign
Gunawardena in Sri Lanka has already exchange and electricity will be ideal” the Sri three years to
looked north to India for over US$ 4 bn since Lankan diplomat added.
the island’s energy crisis started to take its toll Once agreed it is thought the power line build.
a year ago. with a capacity of around 1 GW would take
A further loan for $2.9 bn is now being between two and three years to build.
processed by the International Monetary When complete it would be the sub-conti-
Fund (IMF), the Sri Lankan envoy to India, nent’s first undersea power link with its island
Milinda Moragoda has said. neighbour, measuring roughly 250 to 300 km
“We have to have growth, otherwise basi- in total, with around 50 km passing under the
cally the economy will shrink” Colombo’s Palk Strait separating the two nations.
P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 08 22 •February•2023
