By Ifham Nizam

Minister of Power Dullas Alahapperuma said yesterday that Sri Lanka would have faced a minimum 16-hour power cut on a daily basis if not for the visionary initiatives by the late President J. R. Jayewardene and the late Minister Gamini Dissanayake to commence the Mahaweli Development Project, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s bold decision to commence the first coal fired power plant complex at Norochcholai.

“Irrespective of political differences, correct decisions taken with regard to the power sector should be praised,” Minister Alahapperuma told a group of journalists invited to the new Power Ministry headquarters in Kollupitiya.

Alahapperuma said that minimising the use of fossil fuel remained the top priority as instructed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

April 6 had recorded highest peak use (2,768 MW) at 6.55 p.m, the Minister said, adding that diesel and furnace oil plants released over 13 million kilos of carbon on a daily basis here to generate 15.3 gigawatt hours, which he termed was worse than cutting down 1,000 trees.

Minister Alahapperuma said that the country spent a lot of money on fossil fuels and it was important to increase the output from renewable energy.

“We are determined to reduce electricity generation from diesel and furnace oil to five percent by 2025 and to one per cent by 2030.”

Alahapperuma said that it had been planned to add 600MW of solar power to the national grid from 7,000 power plants to be constructed within a few years. He said since 2013, after Norochcholai Power Plants One and Two, no major or stable power plant had been added to the grid though 550MW from various sources had been blocked since 2014. “I don’t want to dwell on the past, and for my part I will go all to achieve the projected targets, and if there are any mistakes or problems I should be held responsible.”

Minister Alahapperuma  said that wind and solar power generation was being expanded countrywide with wind plants being equipped with battery storage units to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply

“We are planning to equip selected Samurdhi families with 5kW solar panels they can install on their rooftops as another source of power,” he said.