Power cuts certain as it stands- CEBEU

Crisis management committee has not met for three months

By Ifham Nizam

The Country would experience rotational power cuts due to the negligence of some top officials of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the powerful Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union (CEBEU) warned yesterday.

A senior Electrical Engineer and one time President of CEBEU told The Island that masses would experience more power cuts unless immediate action was taken.

“The Power Crisis Committee Meeting has not been held for three months by the CEB General Manager M.R. Ranatunga despite our warnings,” a committee member of the CEBEU said.

The power shortage would be due to shortage in the installed power generating capacity to meet the forecasted demand and also due to a possible fuel shortage affecting power generation, they said.

“Despite repeated warnings by the CEBEU as a Trade Union and our members in their official capacities, CEB Chairman and outgoing General Manager Eng. M.R. Ranatunga had not taken any steps to plan and prepare for such an eventuality. Despite repeated requests, no “Power Crisis Meetings”, a regular meeting convened by all past GMs to identify impending power shortages and to make any adjustments early, has not been held during the term of present GM,” a senior engineer said.

CEBEU also said it was critically important for all authorities to identify at least now itself why there was a severe project implementation delay in the country and address the Causes of such Problems (to eliminate the Problem) instead of blaming the Effects/Results of the problem.

“We wish to caution authorities not to allow a crisis to take place and thereafter resort to very expensive short-term solutions such as supplementary power (popularly referred to as emergency power) purchasing to overcome only the effects of the problem,” the Union added.

Non-implementation or the delaying of scheduled power plants and the cancellation of finalised power plants had resulted in the imminent crisis, the union said. Withholding 150MW ground mounted solar tender by the State Ministry of Renewable Energy Projects Development for more than 15 months and inexcusable dragging of already finalized 350 MW CCY power plant at Kerawalapitiya (Sobadhavi) are some examples of the most recent root causes which are to be readily attended as long-term solutions, the union said, adding that the authorities should conserve fuel for power generation by taking measures to cut down fuel on transport use by resorting to innovative measures such as encouraging and facilitating work from home arrangements immediately.

The Union also pointed out that all authorities should follow the Sri Lanka National Energy Policy recommendations, which were published in 2019 and well before the COVID Pandemic.

“We urge authorities to run this country based on such long-term policies and actions already identified instead of managing from crisis to crisis basis,” the Union added.