CEB says it has been producing most costly power in Asia

Sri Lanka needs to reduce the cost of producing electricity by about 25 percent in the next three years, , General Manager of CEB Narendra de Silva said on Thursday (15) during a consultation on the proposed electricity tariff, organized by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) at the BMICH.

“Right now we spend about 40.76 rupees to produce a unit of electricity (a kilowatt hour). This is very high compared to the rest of Asia. This should be around 31 rupees per unit.”

He said that out of the 40.76 rupees, about 28 rupees is spent on materials used to produce electricity, i.e. mainly costly fuel. This should drop to at least 22 rupees.

Secretary of the Electricity Consumers’ Association, Sanjeewa Dhammika, said that the CEB has proposed a tariff reduction of 3.3 percent. The tariff should be reduced by 33 percent.

Silva said the finance cost of producing a unit of electricity is about four rupees, it should be reduced to 50 cents.

“If we can reduce these expenses, we will reach some kind of parity with other countries. We have taken about 300 billion rupees as loans. We have to do something about the high interest we pay. We must also drop the cost of production. We need to get this done in the next three years,” he said. (RK)