Due to a delay in coal stocks, 32,350 megawatt-hours of low-cost electricity will be lost.

Due to the eight-day delay of the vessel carrying an emergency coal shipment to the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant, consumers have lost the opportunity to generate approximately 32,350 megawatt-hours of low-cost electricity. By the time this delay occurred, the additional (buffer stock) coal reserves at the power plant had been completely depleted, leading the power plant to face a severe coal shortage.

To compensate for the shortcomings in the coal supply from India's 'Trident Chemphar' company, the Lanka Coal Company (LCC) had ordered five emergency coal shipments, each of 60,000 metric tons, from India's 'Taranjot Resources' company under an emergency tender. However, the fifth emergency shipment had to be sent back due to not meeting the required standards, and although the new shipment provided as compensation was scheduled to arrive on August 27, 2026, it reached the island only on September 04.

As revealed before the Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on Transport and Strategic Development of Parliament, the amount of electricity lost due to this delay is equivalent to operating the entire 900 MW capacity power plant continuously for 36 hours, or one 300 MW generator at full capacity for four and a half days. Power plant officials have pointed out that without additional coal stocks, there is a risk of disruption to the plant's operations if any supply delays occur in the future. Although it is standard practice to maintain a buffer stock of 100,000 metric tons, only 1.996 million metric tons have been received this time out of the 2.16 million metric tons required.

Under the previous 2025-2026 agreement, only 19 out of the 25 ships ordered from 'Trident Chemphar' company have arrived, and all of them arrived late and did not meet the required standards. It has been estimated that the use of such substandard coal has resulted in a direct financial loss of Rs. 5.68 billion to the Electricity Generation Lanka (EGL) company in the country during the period from March 1 to June 30.

The Chairman of the Committee, Member of Parliament S. M. Marikkar, has instructed that the loss incurred due to the loss of megawatt-hours and the delay charges should be recovered from the relevant supplier, and that the Ministry of Power should intervene immediately for this purpose. Meanwhile, the first coal shipment of the new season, secured by 'Aditya Birla' company, arrived on the island as scheduled on September 16.