‘Cabinet agreed to bear power generation costs to mitigate present power crisis’

Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya yesterday said, the Cabinet has agreed to bear power generation costs to provide uninterrupted power supply.

“So steps are being taken to avoid the crisis,” he said and added, “The government in mitigating the crisis has already spent additional Rs. 27.5 billion over the last four months to provide uninterrupted power.”

The government gave this amount to us on the directions of President Maithripala Sirisena, he said.

“The moneys have been spent to buy much needed fossil fuel power to meet the country’s electricity demand, “ the minister said.

Should the drought continue the extra costs on power generation will soar to a staggering Rs 50 billion, he said.

“The Power and Energy Ministry had apprised the government of the situation and the size of the mitigation cost of the crisis in December last year,” the minister said.

“The interrupted monsoons which have been experienced from 2016 is nobody’s fault. It is a disaster which we all have to pull through,” stressed Siyambalapitiya.

The government has given Rs 5 billion to the Ceylon Electricity Board.

He categorically stated that they have no intention to increase electricity bills although they face daunting challenges in the domain of electricity power generation.

”It is necessary to state this clearly because some people have been asking us of late whether we were going to bring an increase in electricity bills,” the minister said.

“It is true that we are experiencing difficulties. Moreover, the problems before us are serious with high costs associated with power production,” he said.

”Prolonged drought and disrupted monsoon activity that has depleted water levels in hydro reservoirs which are now at 28 percent of installed volume,” he said.

“We are taking steps to minimize the use of electricity in peak hours by introducing various incentives as at present,” said Siyambalapitiya.

He said his ministry is encouraging the public to use LED bulbs, which can save about 70 per cent of energy.

The ministry has got the approval of the Cabinet to import 10 million LED bulbs to be distributed among low-income generating families. The cost of the bulb will be deducted from their electricity bill. “I promise that their bills will not exceed the usual amounts and they will be paying lesser than what they have been paying,” he added.

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