Adani Green Energy and the Government of Sri Lanka have failed to reach an agreement on the unit price of electricity for the Mannar Wind Farm project—putting the country at risk of losing $1 billion in foreign direct investment.
The previous government had selected India’s Adani Group to develop the 484 MW Mannar Wind Farm and the associated transmission project. The Cabinet at the time approved five Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), and Adani Green Energy proposed a unit price of $0.826 per kilowatt-hour.
The project was nearly ready for launch when the new government decided to re-evaluate the pricing proposal from Adani, arguing that the rate was too high. This prompted the withdrawal of Green Energy, Adani’s local representative, from the Mannar Wind Farm project.
At the Sri Lankan government’s request, Adani Green Energy later expressed its willingness to move forward with the project. However, the company maintained that it would not revise the rate proposed during the initial agreement.
The current administration, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has insisted that the project will not proceed at the original pricing. President Dissanayake made this position clear during his election campaign, stating that his government would not allow the project to move forward under those terms.
If the project does not proceed, Sri Lanka stands to lose up to $1 billion in potential foreign direct investment.
Meanwhile, during the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a new Memorandum of Understanding is expected to be signed to initiate a feasibility study on cross-border power grid integration between Sri Lanka and India.
The study is expected to be completed within nine months, after which decisions will be made regarding the future of the project, according to government sources.
