CEBEU sees sinister move to malign it over genuine fault in the system

By Ifham Nizam

The powerful Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) now under fire over the major power disruption on 03 Dec., said yesterday that as per analysis done by CEB experts, based on information logged in Disturbance Recorders, there had been an actual fault in the Biyagama-Kotmale 220kv backbone transmission line, the exact cause of which was being investigated.

The CEBEU has categorcailly denied claims by a group “with vested interest and no power system protection expertise”.

“We wish to inform the media and public that the so-called “Senior Engineering Association” (SEA) has fewer than 30 members and does not have any senior engineers as the name suggests,” Jt. Secretary, CEBEU, Dhammika Wimalararatne said.

Wimalararatne said that one of the allegations was that there was remote access to relays and thereby settings had been changed to create the major power disruption. He said there was no scientific basis for such claims.

CEB has SIEMENS and SCHNEIDER (MICOM) main protection relays and QUALITROL BEN6000 Fault Recorders installed at Biyagama and Kotmale grid substations. “If anyone had accessed these relays (remotely or otherwise), and modified anything, all such changes and accesses would have been logged internally; what is on the relay events list and cannot be deleted,” he added.

Internal investigations carried out by the CEB has confirmed that there had not been any such external manipulation of relays at Biyagama and Kotmale lines, Wimalaratne said.

“We reiterate that these records cannot be altered and hence available for any party to investigate such claims. The CEBEU is willing to share such data with any power system protection expert from either Siemens or Schneider, or any other independent expert on the subject to independently verify any claims.’