Electricity Generation in

Samanalawewa Powerplant
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents..................................................................................................... ii
Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1
The Samanalawewa Hydroelectric Project...............................................................2
Conclusions.............................................................................................................. 7
The project’s contribution to increasing the electric power supply in Sri
Lanka can be duly recognized. However, it is still possible to further seek
the project’s economic efficiency by making adjustments in water use such
as agricultural water......................................................................................7
Appropriate monitoring for water leakage is being undertaken. .................7
.................................................................................................................... 7
References ............................................................................................................... 8
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Introduction
Sri Lanka is poor in fossil fuel resources such as oil, coal and natural gas
and relies on water and biomass as energy sources. Particularly, water is the energy
resource with the most potential in Sri Lanka and the government has been actively
promoting hydroelectric power generation by implementing large-scale hydroelectric
power development projects in the Mahaweli and Laxapana river systems.

As the country’s main electricity power provider CEB is responsible for three tasks.
1. Power generation
2. Transmission
3. Distribution
So hydro power generation is the major field in generating power, and this is mainly
fulfilled by four major complexes.

Capacity
1. Mahaweli 664 MWh
2. Laxapana 335 MWh
3. Other : samanalawewa, kukulegaga, udawalawe, iginiyagala

But with the increasing power consumption thermal power plants were also established
later, there are two major complexes which run by coal power.
1. Kelanitissa
2. Sapugaskanda

The rest of power requirement is fulfilled by purchasing power from private sector.
1. Asia power 49 MW
2. Colombo power 60 MW
3. ACE power 40 MW
4. Lakdanavi 22 MW

This project aimed to address the shortage of electricity supply in Sri Lanka by
constructing a reservoir-type hydroelectric power plant with a maximum output of 120
MW in the upstream of Walawe River, approximately 160 km southeast of Colombo,
thereby contributing to the economic development and improvement of the welfare of
Sri Lanka.
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The Samanalawewa Hydroelectric Project

Geological Details

The second largest project after Mahaweli is the Samanalawewa hydroelectric scheme,
which includes a 100m high rockfill earth core type embankment dam, with project
construction works commencing in 1986 when financing was received from the
governments of Japan and the UK.

Built across the river Walawe, one of the five main rivers in Sri Lanka, Samanalawewa
dam is situated near the town of Balangoda about 160km south east of the capital
Colombo. It is a key element of the 120MW Samanalawewa hydroelectric project
implemented to harness the hydro power potential of the Walawe.
The reservoir created by the dam has a total live storage capacity of 218Mm3 out of
278Mm3 total gross capacity. The balance 60Mm3 is meant for dead storage. At its full
supply level of el 460m above mean sea level, the U-shaped reservoir spreads to a distance
of 8km upstream along two limbs, in the streams Walawe and Belihul.
The other elements in the project are a 5.35km long head race tunnel, 840m long steel
penstock, surface power station housing two 60MW turbine-generator units, and a 650m
long tail race canal. The project is designed to generate 403GWh of energy annually and
the plant has been generating power since its commissioning in October 1992, amidst the
leakage problem which developed in the reservoir due to the adverse geological conditions
prevailing in the right bank.
The power house contains two Francis turbines, each with a capacity of 62 MW, and
generates 405 GWh of energy annually. The power plant is managed by the Ceylon
Electricity Board.

Spillway
The spillway of the dam is of gated overflow chute type designed to pass the 1 in 10,000
year flood of 3600m3/sec and is located in the left abutment of the dam. It is fitted with
three 11m wide 14m high automatic tainted gates (radial gates). The specialty of this gate
type is its ability to open during a flood even without the power supply and/or in the
absence of operators.

The leak from the Samanalawewa Dam

A permeable area of ground was found during the

construction of the dam in 1988. However, as the
reservoir was being filled, a large leak occurred on
the side of the right bank, about 300 metres (980 ft)
downstream from the dam, causing a landslip.
Subsequent measures taken to control the leakage
were largely ineffective. The leakage of
approximately 1,800 litres (400 imp gal) per second
continues, but has not affected power production at
the plant, which has been in full operation since its
commissioning in 1992.

The leak is constantly monitored. If the leak remains

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stable and does not increase further, it does not pose a threat to the sustainability of the
project.

Power Generation
The annual power generation was originally planned at 462 GWh/year at the time of phase
I appraisal and was revised to 403 GWh/year at the time of appraisal for the remedial
works. The actual annual power generation was 271 GWh/year (1993–2005 average),
which was 59% of the originally planned amount and 67% of the revised planned amount.
There are no records/documents related to the calculation basis of these two
different figures (462 GWh/year and 403 GWh/year.) It makes difficult to directly compare
the actual power generation to the original plan.

From the Samanalawewa Dam, irrigation water is discharged to the Kaltota

Agricultural District downstream. This discharge volume is determined based on
the agreement between the Kaltota Agricultural District and the Irrigation
Department. Because irrigation water is discharged without going through
the power station, power generation declines as the discharge volume
increases. According to CEB, the actual average volume of discharged water is 89 million
annually, while the original plan showed 50 million. It is roughly estimated
that this difference causes a reduction in power generation by 30 GWh/year.
Furthermore, based on the existing relevant material, the originally planned annual
discharge volume might have been 21.6 million m3. In that case, the reduction
of power generation would be around 50 GWh/year annually.

Basic outline of the system

Impact

1. Removal of vegetation inside the reservoir

It was found necessary to remove vegetation inside the reservoir in order to prevent water
pollution. Vegetation has been removed from half of the submerged area.
According to monitoring results of the water quality of the reservoir conducted by CEB,
the water quality was good and water pollution has not occurred at the time of evaluation.

2. Problem of lowering groundwater level

The construction of diversion tunnels for power generation caused lowering of

groundwater levels in the areas situated on the tunnel routes, which resulted
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in drying up of wells and drought of the cultivation lands. To solve this problem, CEB
supplied water by using a water truck.
When the problem occurred, it was predicted that the groundwater level would recover to
The original level after project completion. CEB has been observing the groundwater level
in the Rajawaka District on the tunnel route since the project completion. According to
CEB, the groundwater level rose substantially from 1991 to 1993 and has remained almost
unchanged after that time.

3. Influence to the downstream water use

In the Kaltota District, downstream from the dam, irrigation farming has been implemented
Since before the project. In this project, the water used for power generation is not
discharged directly downstream and goes around the Kaltota District. Therefore, when
implementing the project, it was necessary to give consideration to the distribution of
irrigation water for this district.
CEB discharges irrigation water from the dam in accordance with the agreement with the
Irrigation Department. The water leaked from the right bank of the dam is used as
irrigation water and when the water volume is inadequate, water is discharged
from the agricultural water discharge valve.
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Operation and Maintainace of the plant

Operation

There are four regular tasks are combined with the power plant.

1. Administration
2. Operation
3. Maintenance
4. Other tasks

Operations of the plant are a huge area which is directly responsible for the
proper functioning of the power plant.

The common operation activities are,

• Machine starting, stopping and load control

• Data collection
• Alarm reset
• Section isolation and de-isolation
• Preparing reports

The following is the Basic starting sequence of the regular operations of the plant.

• Starting the CW pump (for cooling water)

• Starting the lubrication oil pump
• Starting governor oil etc. pump
• Open the MIV bypass
• Open the generator valve
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Supervisory control system

This system provides supervision and operations for the basic operations in the hydro
power plant in a digitized manner. The system is multi-tasking and is operated in real time.
The system is basically built with several sub components such as HMI (Human Machine
Interface), STO, MMI station etc. . . .

Maintainace

There are three types of maintenance methods are taken for the better safety in the overall
system. They are general inspection, breakdown approach, and preventive maintain ace.

In general inspection data is collected about the system in regular basis. So if there is any
difference or contrast in data it can be identified by comparing and analysing regular data.
But even so a breakdown can be happened. In that case it should be fixed very quickly as
sudden failures and malfunction recovery processes are always very expensive. Preventive
procedure is taken care of the possible breakdowns in the future and acts to avoid them in
advance.
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Conclusions
The project’s contribution to increasing the electric power supply in Sri Lanka can be duly
recognized. However, it is still possible to further seek the project’s economic
efficiency by making adjustments in water use such as agricultural water.

Appropriate monitoring for water leakage is being undertaken.

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References
[1]. Samanalawewa Hydroelectric Power Project (I) (II) (III) and Samanalawewa
Hydroelectric Project (Reservoir Remedial Works)

- External Evaluator: Hiroyuki Shindo (Incorporated Administrative

Agency, Japan Water Agency,
Field Survey:October and December