Home / Asia / Sri Lanka / Nilambe

Nilambe

Hydro power plant in Central, Sri Lanka. Approximate location 7.1966, 80.6121.

HydroCentralSri Lanka

Nilambe is a 3 MW hydro power plant in Central, Sri Lanka. It is operated by Ceylon Electricity Board. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 3,203 homes (estimated). It ranks #44 of 48 Sri Lanka power plants by installed capacity. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 38.2% of Sri Lanka's electricity; the national grid averages 329 gCO₂/kWh (61.6% low-carbon) (2025).

3MW installed capacity
3,203homes powered (est.)

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1030430.

Capacity vs largest hydro plants in Sri Lanka

Victoria: 210 MW210VictoriaKotmale: 201 MW201KotmaleUpper Kotmale: 150 MW150Upper Kotm…Randenigala: 126 MW126RandenigalaSamanala: 124 MW124SamanalaNew Laxapana: 100 MW100New Laxapa…Kukule Ganga: 80 MW80Kukule Gan…Polpitiya: 75 MW75Polpitiya

Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by Ceylon Electricity Board. All plants by this company →

Local climate & thermal context

This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 7.2°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

19.5°Cannual mean temp
3heating degree-days (base 18°C)
545cooling degree-days (base 18°C)
1,350 melevation

Monthly mean temperature

J: 18 °CJF: 19 °CFM: 20 °CMA: 20 °CAM: 21 °CMJ: 20 °CJJ: 20 °CJA: 20 °CAS: 20 °CSO: 20 °CON: 19 °CND: 18 °CD21 °C

Heating degree-days here run 100% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.

Climate heat-demand index: 13/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.

In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.

Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #19 largest hydro power plant of 21 in Sri Lanka by capacity.

Sri Lanka has 21 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 1,442 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

Location

Coordinates 7.1966, 80.6121 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

Built from open public data; no personal information. Operate this site? Request a correction or removal.