Engineers call govt.’s deal with US firm madness

By Ifham Nizam

Underhand deals or unsolicited proposals would lead to power cuts in the near future, warn CEB engineers.

They said they were puzzled by the manner in which the govenrment had acted as regards its deal with the US based energy firm.

learns that a number of trade unions along with representatives of some political parties are teaming up to take up the matter with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa when he returns from the US

Senior former CEB Engineer Kanga Gnana told The Island that it looked like there was no centralised planning. He stressed that it could lead to power cuts if no agreements were reached.

He stressed that as LNG price was highly variable it could lead to higher cost – soon many would go off grid – with solar and batteries – “second life RV batteries are almost at no cost and have 50 per cent capacity when removed from the EV”.

“Gas-fired power plants are already struggling to compete with wind and solar farms. Even with storage those systems could be cheaper by 2030 – No need for LNG in large quantities and for a period of five years as the Country will end up paying through the nose”, he added.

The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers strongly opposing the move are in the process coming out strongly against the Finance Ministry decision without consulting the major stakeholders.

The Union stressed that it was madness to approve the unsolicited proposal by the US based Energy Firm New Fortress Energy as it was attempting to supply LNG infrastructure in a manner substantially unfavourable to the country.

Two Cabinet papers were presented and approved as per news media regarding the NFE Proposal. They were now being circulated in the public domain, an Independent Engineer said.