Adani Enterprises wind power project caught in Lankan political crossfire

A 500-megawatt (Mw) wind power project awarded to Adani Enterprises in March has become a bone of contention between ruling and opposition parties in Sri Lanka.

The controversy over the Adani investment in the neighbouring nation stems from domestic power politics in which a bureaucrat has become collateral damage.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (pictured) denied a claim made by Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) chief M M C Ferdinando before Sri Lanka’s parliamentary committee of public enterprises that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had influenced the decision to award a wind power project to the Adani group without tendering and other considerations.

Ferdinando added in the same breath in his deposition (made in Sinhala) that it was a government-to-government negotiation and had nothing to do with him or the electricity board. Still, he said, he wrote to the Board of Investment on November 24 last year, asking it to consider the bid.

When the President’s office refuted his testimony, Ferdinando said he was “overcome by emotion” and thus made a “false” statement before the panel attributing “pressure” from the former.

However, this has come in handy for the Sri Lankan Opposition that is both mounting a campaign to control the powers of the executive presidency — which, it argues, empower the head of state to issue such orders as he can instruct any minister and department to take decisions — and getting President Rajapaksa to quit.

The Opposition has made no bones about its charge that India is underwriting the Rajapaksa regime. The Indian High Commission in Colombo has had to deny reports that the Indian government had “extracted” the Rajapaksa family, when it was under attack, and ferried it to safety; charges that India had dispatched troops to Sri Lanka when the rioting was at its height and other allegations of interference.

However, the Indian High Commission has neither issued a clarification nor an explanation of how Modi got involved in a commercial investment decision.

A statement by an Adani spokesperson was cited in media reports saying the company’s intent in investing in Sri Lanka is to address the needs of a valued neighbour. “As a responsible corporate, we see this as a necessary part of the partnership that our two nations have always shared. We are clearly disappointed by the detraction that seems to have come about,” its statement in The Indian Express said.

The project, costing approximately $500 million, was planned under the Sri Lankan government’s renewable push.

The CEB in its Long-Term Generation Expansion Planning Studies (2020-2039) in 2019 identified Mannar as a key wind power generation site.

“In the next 20-year period, Mannar and northern areas will be focused for wind power development at large scale and the Puttalam, eastern and central highland areas will contribute to small- to medium-scale wind power resource development,” said the report.

It further said Mannar Wind Park is the first large-scale wind power project developed in Sri Lanka. During the first stage, 103.5 Mw of wind power will be developed by CEB in the southern coast of the Mannar Island, which would contribute 337 GWh of mean annual energy. It said power development in Mannar, Pooneryn and Puttalam areas are identified for both public and private engagement.

CEB had planned to develop renewable energy sources besides existing large hydro in the next two decades. It said in 20 years, the country will have 1,323 Mw of wind power, 2,210 Mw of solar power, 654 Mw of mini hydro power and 144 Mw of biomass power.