Yesterday, the CEB published the bids received for the 50MW wind power plant in Mannar, which they have called for competitive bids on a 20-year Build, Own, and Operate (BOO) basis.
Bids received (USD cents per 1 kWh) 1. 4.88 – Windforce 2. 4.98 – Vidullanka consortium 3. 5.90 – Lakdhanavi.
Last month, Sri Lanka’s Cabinet approved Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera’s proposal to award Adani the contract for a 484 MW wind farm in the same region, bypassing competitive bidding process.
Rate: 8.26 USD per kWh Same region, same duration of 20 years, same payment structure, much larger plant (which allows further reduced unit cost) for Adani approved at a 69% higher rate than the lowest bid here.
Let’s break down the financial impact:
Adani vs Windforce With a plant factor of 40, Production estimate for Adani’s farm: 484 MW × 40% × 24 hours × 365 ×1,000 ≈ 1.69 billion units/year Annual cost for CEB:
• Adani: 1.69 billion units × $0.0826 ≈ $140 million • WindForce: 1.69 billion units × $0.0488 ≈ $83 million Additional cost due to Adani’s deal:
• Annual: $140M – $83M = $57M
• Over 20 years: $57M × 20 = $1.14 billion T
o put this in perspective, the 2015 bond scam, considered Sri Lanka’s largest financial scandal to date, resulted in a loss of $11 million. The potential loss from the Adani deal is over 100 times that amount. One has to ask: Is it too much to expect a fair, competitive bidding process for massive national projects? If Sri Lanka can’t prevent this level of apparent corruption at the highest levels of government, what hope is there for the country?
– Numbers.lk
@numberslka