Govt. opt for emergency power purchase

By Shiran Ranasinghe

The Cabinet of Ministers had approved an emergency purchase of between 200 and 300 megawatts from Independent Power Producers. Minister of Power, Pavithra Wanniarachchi had presented the Cabinet Paper.

A number of CEB engineers and officials had been urging the government to purchase emergency power for the last few months. However, the government did not approve the proposal.

A CEB engineer said that a unit of electricity purchased would cost around Rs. 50. He added that they had not finalised the price of a unit of electricity.

However, the head of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Janaka Ratnayaka said that the final decision on emergency power purchases would be made by his outfit.

Another CEB engineer said given that monsoon rains would commence in May and there was no point in purchasing emergency power for six months. Independent Power Producers also use diesel to produce electricity. “Even state owned power plants do not have diesel. How will these private operators get diesel. We will just pay a lot of money for nothing,” he said.