News
CEB recommends scheduled power cuts for two and half hours daily
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has recommended to the Ministry of Power to impose scheduled power cuts for two and half hours daily.
The CEB’s Additional General Manager P.W. Hendahewa has communicated the decision to Power Ministry Secretary Wasantha Perera and urged that it be enforced immediately.
However, the Sunday Times learns that unscheduled power cuts lasting for the same duration will be enforced to overcome the shortfall in power generation.
One-hour power cuts will be enforced between 11 am and 6 pm and two 45-minute power cuts during the peak hours of 6 pm to 9 pm, according to a senior CEB official.
He said that, due to the dollar crisis, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) had withdrawn from supplying fuel to thermal power plants. In addition the closure of the Norochcholai coal power plant’s third unit and a part of the Kerawalapitiya Yugadanavi plant for maintenance and the breakdown at the Kalanitissa 115MW gas turbine plant had necessitated the imposition of power cuts, the official said.
A. R. Navamani, the CEB’s AGM in charge of power generation, said the power situation would be reviewed day by day.
As of now even though the daily peak hour — night time — demand is about 2,500 MW and day time demand is about 2,100 MW, Sri Lanka’s energy requirement is around 48 Giga Watt hours.
The Sunday Times learns that the CEB’s General Manager had been informed at least two weeks ago by Deputy General Manager (Systems Control) R. Alahakoon that if the deficit was to be overcome, a power cut of two and a half hours would have to be imposed.
However, since required measures were not taken, unscheduled power cuts were experienced in different parts of the country during the past few days.
“Scheduled power cuts are what we impose when we disconnect power to a certain area at a specific time subsequent to prior notification but unscheduled power cuts mean, when the supply cannot meet the demand, the system automatically collapses and this results in power being disconnected for a certain area for a number of hours.
“We cannot stop that. That is what is happening in the country now. That is why we said ahead of time that within the reality that prevails, we will have to impose official scheduled power cuts. Nevertheless, the authorities did not take steps at the required time,” a senior official said.
Until yesterday morning the 150MW Sapugaskanda plant and the 60MW Colombo Port Barge had been been halted due to lack of fuel.
Meanwhile, the national grid has been deprived of 300 MW of power from the 3rd unit of the Norochcholai Power Plant which remains closed for maintenance work for one month. Similarly, a part of the Yugadanavi at Kerawalapitiya 300MW Power Plant has not been operational from last month as a result of scheduled maintenance. It only supplies150MW to the national grid.
The Norochcholai Power Plant third unit would be operational by the end of this month while Yugadanavi would be fully operations by the middle of this month, the official said..
In addition, the CEB’s aging 115MW Kelanitissa power plant has experienced a technical breakdown at the moment.
As a result, 40 percent of the daily power requirement is being met by hydro power, 30 percent by coal power, 22 percent from oil and another 8 percent from solar and wind power. Since there is no rain, in catchment areas, none of the mini hydro power plants is in operation.
Meanwhile to prevent power cuts, the CEB’s former AGM Janaka Aluthge had made arrangements to extend contracts from 1 December 2021 so as to enable power purchases from privately owned ACE power in Embilipitiya (100 MW) and Matara (25MW).
However, the CEB authorities removed him from his post in mid-November and as a result that planned task had not been completed. This led to severe power cuts being imposed, authoritative sources said.
The CEB owes the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Rs. 90 billion and the Energy Ministry had informed the CEB three weeks earlier that unless the debt was settled in dollars, it would not be possible to supply fuel.
The CEB stated last week that since it did not earn dollars, it was in discussion with state banks to obtain dollars required to buy fuel.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!