CEB bear brunt of adverse weather conditions

 

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) was made to bear an additional cost of Rs. 33.8 billion from January to May due to high dependency on oil to generate power during the prolonged dry spell, Power and Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.

Addressing a press conference at his ministry premises today Siyambalapitiya said the Treasury had provided Rs 6 billion to cover the additional cost.

He added that the recent floods and landslides had also caused a loss of nearly Rs 300 million to the CEB. Observing that the power supply of 770,000 consumers was affected due to disaster situation, he said the CEB workers worked round the clock to restore supply within a short period.

He also said despite the monsoon rains in the Southwestern part of the country, the water level in many reservoirs was not satisfactory.

“The total reservoir storage is about 47 percent now, and this percentage was high over 70 percent in other years. We still need the support of public to use the electricity sparingly,” he said.

Siyambalapitiya said the Government in the next two months would open tenders to add about 890 MW to the national grid to cater to the power demand predicted in 2020.

He added this includes 100 MW LNG plant, 220MW solar power plants and 170 MW wind power plants.

The Power and Energy Ministry in the wake of recent controversies on coal procurement has decided to open a special RTI unit to provide requested information to the public.

“Through this unit we will give out any information we can legally provide,” the minister said.

Ministry Secretary B M S Batagoda said coal procurements are now being done adhering to the cleanest, most transparent and the fastest method.

He said another coal tender would be opened next week.

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post