New Delhi: Sri Lanka’s government is in talks with the Adani Group to reduce the price of power that the conglomerate is to provide via two upcoming wind energy plants in the country.
Last week, President Anura Dissanayake’s government said it revoked the power purchase agreement with Adani Green Energy and decided to appoint a committee to review the project, clarifying however that the project did not stand cancelled.
The development also comes two months after Adani Group officials – including chairman Gautam Adani – were indicted by US federal prosecutors in relation to a solar energy deal. Their allegations including promising to pay bribes to Indian government officials and securities fraud.
“The Sri Lankan government is of the stance that we want a lower price and discussions with Adani have already started,” Colombo’s health and media minister Nalinda Jayatissa said as per Reuters.
Jayatissa also said that the government was of the view that the price of power under the deal could be reduced from the original $0.08 per kWh to around $0.06.
AFP had first reported on January 24 that Colombo revoked the 20-year power purchase deal, which was struck in May and which Dissanayake in the run-up to the presidential election in September pledged to cancel were he to come to power.
The news agency had cited an unnamed senior energy ministry official as saying the agreement was revoked but the project – whose 484 MW power plants are to be located in the country’s north and involve a $442 million investment – was not cancelled.
The Financial Times also reported on January 24 Dissanayake’s cabinet in a meeting last month decided to revoke the purchase deal, citing minutes dated January 2.
Adani issued a statement that same day saying that reports saying the project stood cancelled were “false and misleading”.
Asserting that the project had not been scrapped, the Adani Group said in a statement that the cabinet’s decision to “re-evaluate the tariff approved in May 2024 is part of a standard review process, particularly with a new government, to ensure that the terms align with their current priorities and energy policies”.
Colombo clarified on January 25 that the deal was not cancelled.
In October, the Dissanayake government told the Supreme Court it would reconsider permission granted to the project, PTI reported, adding that the project faces legal challenges from those who say it will have negative environmental impacts and that there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process.