Jun 30, Colombo: The second phase of the Upper Kotmale Hydropower project has commenced adding power to the national grid form today.

With the addition of second 75 megawatts of power to the national grid, the Kotmale project is now adding a total of 150 megawatts of power to the grid. First phase of the project adds 75 megawatts to the grid since April.

Director of the project Shavindranath Fernando said the inspection of the underground plants and the main control panel and commissioning of the plant took place today.

However according to the Ceylon Electricity Board ,the catchment areas of the hydropower reservoirs of Sri Lanka are currently experiencing severe drought and the hydropower generation capacity has fallen to less than 15% of the total.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa last month declared open the Upper Kothmale hydropower project located in the central hill country.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Project is a run of river hydropower project with an installed capacity of 150MW consisting of two 75MW units.

The project is implemented by the Ceylon Electricity Board under the supervision of the Ministry of Power and Energy.

The US$ 450 million project was constructed with the assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).