ECONOMYNEXT – The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has decided to rule out power cuts until further notice, claiming the country has enough raw materials to generate electricity in the near future.
“The Commission has decided not to impose any power cuts until further notice,” PUCSL chairman Janaka Ratnayake said on Monday (31).
“The reasons are we have enough raw materials to generate power and enough water to generate hydro power,” he said.
“Therefore with the available generation plants, there is no need for us to schedule power cuts until further notice. But if we do not conserve and make efforts to save energy and electricity, we will be compelled to take this matter up in the near future to see whether we need to go for scheduled power cuts again.”
The PUCSL chief’s statement comes after the state-owned utility provider Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) sought approval for scheduled daily power cuts until the CEB receives adequate power supply from thermal, coal, and hydro sources.
Power cuts could be extremely painful for the public and businesses while it could make any government in power unpopulour. The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peremuna (SLPP) government is concerned over the political repercussions of the power cuts.
Interruptions to electricity supply, scheduled or not, at this juncture could impact students who are sitting for their Advanced Level (A/L) examination that begins next week.
“Again, considering the fact that pending A/L in the next month, the Commission decided that with the available resources, we can manage this crisis at the moment (sp),” Ratnayake said.
“If necessary, the CEB will make a request when the time comes, then we will make our analysis again and make our decision.”
Ratnayake said it was estimated that around 31 billion rupees in losses might have occurred in the entire economy if the proposed power interruption was approved.
“We were able to save 31 billion rupees by preventing a power interruption. It has been confirmed that a continuous supply of electricity can be provided without any power interruption even at the beginning of February.”
The third unit of the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, which was undergoing renovations, has commenced generation of power supply, while the 130 MW power plant at Sojitz, which was recently disconnected from the national grid for maintenance purposes, will resume generation from February 2, he said.
“As a result, it has been confirmed that the power supply can be maintained uninterrupted,” Ratnayake said.
He also expected the island nation’s solo oil refinery in Sapugaskanda, which resumed operations after one month’s closure, has received crude oil and has already started the process of refining the fuel required for the power plants in the future.
The refinery produces fossil fuels and naphtha as by-products. Power plants such as Sapugaskanda, Colombo Badge, West Coast and Uthuru Janani which has the generation capacity of 495MW, require fossil fuel, said Ratnayake.
“495 mega watts of capacity can be generated for 13 days from the fossil fuel that generated through the refinery process. Also 150 MW power plant can be operated for five days from the Naphtha produced by the crude oil,” he added. (Colombo/Jan31/2022)