Sri Lanka’s first Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) will be inaugurated in Anuradhapura on Friday morning, the Daily Mirror reported, in what the paper describes as a step toward strengthening renewable energy capacity and improving the stability of the national grid.
The opening will be held under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, with Minister of Ports, Civil Aviation and Energy Anura Karunathilake taking part.
The same afternoon, the “Diya Janani” floating solar power plant — built on the Ibbankatuwa Reservoir in Dambulla under the government’s national renewable energy generation programme — will also be inaugurated, again with the President and Minister Karunathilake attending.
The build-up
The Anuradhapura commissioning is the first visible output of a programme that has been assembling for most of the year.
Battery units arrived through the Colombo Port in three consignments during May and June, including an 80MW second shipment in late May and a 2,241-tonne record cargo handled at CICT in June.
In August, officials said commercial-scale systems at 16 transmission substations were nearing completion and expected to join the grid in early September. Each adds 10 megawatts. The project WindForce PLC is building near the Anuradhapura substation was then about 85 percent complete — the furthest advanced of the set, which is consistent with Anuradhapura going first.
The systems are designed to absorb surplus solar generation during daylight and release it after dark, cutting the volume of electricity that must come from diesel-fired plants at night. Control rests with National System Operator Ltd. under the Ministry of Energy.
Procurement for a further 23 substations was already under way in August, and in July the government opened an international tender for 250MW/1000MWh of standalone storage across 25 grid substations on a build-own-operate basis.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not give the capacity of either plant, name the developer of the Anuradhapura BESS or the Diya Janani solar farm, or state the cost of either. It does not say whether the Anuradhapura unit is the WindForce project described in August, or whether the remaining 15 substation systems are also ready.
It gives no generation figure for the floating solar plant, no surface area on the Ibbankatuwa Reservoir, and no indication of whether Diya Janani is a standalone project or the first of a series.
Update, 18 September: Hiru News filed its own account on the morning of the openings, confirming the Anuradhapura BESS inauguration under the President’s patronage and the “Diyajanani” floating solar plant at the Ibbankatuwa tank in Dambulla, with Minister Anura Karunathilaka attending. Hiru places the BESS opening in the morning and the solar plant in the afternoon, matching the Daily Mirror. It adds no capacity, cost or developer detail, so the gaps listed above remain open. Note the two outlets spell the solar plant differently — “Diya Janani” in the Daily Mirror, “Diyajanani” in Hiru.
At the time of first writing, no other verified newsroom had carried the announcement, and the government news portal news.lk had nothing on either opening.
Update, 18 September: connected to the grid — and most of the gaps above now close
The Anuradhapura system was connected to the national electricity grid on Friday morning under the President’s patronage, news.lk and the Daily Mirror both reported, citing the President’s Media Division. The two accounts agree on every figure.
The detail the earlier filings withheld is now on the record:
- Capacity: 10 MW / 40 MWh — a four-hour storage duration, consistent with the “10 megawatts each” figure attached to the substation programme in August.
- Developer: Storex (Private) Limited. This corrects the inference drawn above. The August reporting put WindForce PLC’s Anuradhapura project at 85 percent complete and furthest advanced, which made it the natural candidate to go first. The plant actually connected is Storex’s. The two should not be conflated, and WindForce’s project remains separately unaccounted for.
- Programme scale: 13 systems totalling 130 MW / 520 MWh, of which Anuradhapura is the first. The remaining 12 are expected to be completed and connected within two to three months.
That 13-system, 130 MW programme is a different and smaller thing from the 250MW/1000MWh standalone-storage tender opened in July across 25 grid substations, and from the 16 substations described in August. Sri Lanka now has at least three overlapping storage procurements running, and no outlet has set out how they relate.
Minister Anura Karunathilake said the connection marked a step toward increasing renewable use, lowering generation costs and delivering a more reliable supply, framing it as part of building “a self-sufficient green renaissance.”
At the ceremony the President unveiled a commemorative plaque, inspected the installation, presented a printer to Thammennapura College and awarded 10 scholarships to students sitting G.C.E. Ordinary Level mathematics and science.
Still not reported: neither account gives the cost of the Anuradhapura system or the programme, says how Storex was selected, or states where the remaining 12 systems will be sited.
Update, 18 September: the floating solar plant, and the rest of the gaps close
The afternoon half of Friday’s programme is now on the record. The “Diyajanani” floating solar plant was connected to the national grid on Friday afternoon, again under the President’s patronage, the Daily Mirror reported. The figures the earlier filings withheld:
- Capacity: 5 MW, built across 10.5 acres of the Ibbankatuwa Tank
- Developer: Diyajanani (Pvt) Ltd, built with local engineers and technicians
- Output: enough electricity annually for about 7,500 households
- Displacement: around 2.5 million litres of diesel and 6,440 tonnes of CO₂ avoided a year, which the project puts at roughly USD 3 million in saved foreign exchange
- Around 150 people from surrounding communities were employed during construction
On the figures given, the plant works out to roughly 0.48 MW per acre and about 333 litres of diesel displaced per household served per year. The Daily Mirror does not give the plant’s cost, its expected annual generation in kilowatt-hours, or the tariff at which the output is sold — so the diesel and foreign-exchange savings cannot be checked against a generation figure.
The paper also lists community payments made alongside the connection: a generator and Rs. 800,000 to the Sri Vivekarama Temple for a Dhamma Hall, Rs. 2 million to the fishing community for mud ponds and equipment, Rs. 1 million for a green park under Clean Sri Lanka, Rs. 800,000 to Anakatava Primary School and Rs. 400,000 to Weera Mohan Jayamaha School and a water project.
Note the spelling split logged earlier resolves in Hiru’s favour: the Daily Mirror’s own report on the connection uses “Diyajanani” as one word, matching Hiru and the company name, against its “Diya Janani” of the day before.
What remains open: the cost of either plant, how Storex and Diyajanani (Pvt) Ltd were selected, where the remaining 12 battery systems will be sited, and how the 13-system programme relates to the 16-substation set described in August and the separate 250MW/1000MWh tender opened in July.
Update, 19 September: Storex is building all 13, not just Anuradhapura
Hiru News has filed its own account of the grid connection, agreeing with news.lk and the Daily Mirror on the 10 MW / 40 MWh capacity, the President’s patronage and the two-to-three-month timeline for the rest.
It settles one point the other two left ambiguous. Hiru describes the 13-system, 130 MW / 520 MWh rollout as “the overall project undertaken by Storex Private Limited”, with Anuradhapura as its first phase — so Storex is the developer of the whole programme, not merely of the plant that happened to connect first. The earlier accounts named Storex only in relation to Anuradhapura.
That sharpens rather than resolves the WindForce question. The August reporting put WindForce PLC’s own Anuradhapura-area project at 85 percent complete; if Storex holds all 13 systems in this programme, WindForce’s project belongs to one of the other overlapping procurements, and no outlet has said which.
Hiru attributes the account to the President’s Media Division, the same origin as the other two reports, so this remains a single underlying statement relayed three ways rather than three independent verifications. It adds no cost figure, no selection process and no siting detail for the remaining 12.
