The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) of Sri Lanka (which is the successor to the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research) has helped Koolair Ventures Power Ltd to successfully operate its power plant in Malabe, near Colombo.

Koolair had purchased nine 1350 kVA generators for the Malabe plant to supply 8.2 MWe to the grid. However, prior to operating the plant, Koolair had to obtain an Environmental Protection License (EPL) to ensure that the sound levels were within legal limits.

Koolair requested ITI to undertake the consultancy, and it submitted a report on noise abatement of the generators. The report included design of a building to house the generators, and construction details for generator inlet/outlet attenuators. The cost of implementing the recommendations was estimated at about $100,000.

The results of subsequent sound level measurements confirmed that the changes were effective in reducing the sound level to acceptable values.