Govt. struggles to sustain electricity supply

The country is faced with a major power crisis with rising uncertainty over uninterrupted supply.

However, Power Minister Gamini Lokuge said last-minute discussions were held yesterday with Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who assured to arrange the necessary foreign exchange to purchase necessary fuel quantities for CEB to avoid a severe power outage. 

The CEB announced yesterday that a 63 MW power generator at the Sapugaskanda Power Plant has been shut down due to the lack of fuel, and later, it was confirmed that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has agreed to supply 900 tons of fuel. 

The Power Minister claimed that Lanka IOC has turned down the request to supply fuel to the CEB for electricity generation, as it does not possess extra stocks of fuel and the firm was concentrating on the uninterrupted supply of fuel to their stations for vehicles. Lokuge said he is hopeful that necessary facilities will be available by later today to obtain fuel from the oil tanker docked at the Colombo Port, if it can be released on time. Separately, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said that priority would be given for road diesel for vehicles that would otherwise come to a complete standstill, unlike a power outage of an hour or two. Last week, Gammanpila said that CPC has agreed to provide 11,000 tons of furnace oil to CEB till 22 January with a view to managing the existing power crisis. 

Despite agreeing to release the foreign exchange, the Central Bank Governor also pointed out that the line ministries should have planned ahead to omit sudden economic paralysis.