Huge power duping!

Who is getting duped? None other than the Finance Ministry itself. The Finance Ministry has forwarded cooked up figures regarding the IPP’s (Individual Power Plants) and their price for a power unit, as well as their fuel used, according to the headlines of a leading newspaper last Sunday. It reports the Finance Ministry has rejected the extension/renewal of these IPP’s contracts, based on inflated and inaccurate figures in the Cabinet Paper.

Now who’s duping who? Who presented these papers to the Cabinet? Is it the Power and Energy Ministry, the CEB or the PM? Obviously, it comes from interested parties who want these IPP’s gone. So, their own players can come into the lucrative business of power generation. What a clever way to get rid of competition. Along with falsely inflated prices, a deliberate error on the fuel used, ‘auto diesel fired’, instead of the actual furnace oil that they use, was made. This makes a huge difference to the energy cost per unit price. The actual energy cost of the IPP’s are around 19.45 per kWh, whereas in an auto diesel powered plant it would be above Rs.25 per KWh.

Despite this, it didn’t put off the CEB from signing letters for 130 mw of auto diesel fired ‘emergency power’ last Thursday! Looks like ‘least cost principle’ in the Sri Lanka Electricity Act is booted out of the window. Where is PUCSL when we need them? Are they already in fold down mode? They need to work their fingers to the bone even if these are their last days, to show Sri Lanka that their contribution matters. This might be the opportunity to rescue their badly damaged reputation. Who can explain the rationale to get rid of 170 mw of power already in the CEB’s least cost generation plan, to make room for ‘emergency power suppliers’ at higher rates? With these kinds of manipulated contracts, the loss to the CEB can run into billions even if they go on only for the next few years.

In today’s The Island feature, Dr.Janaka Ratnasiri notes even President Gotabaya’s visions of Renewable Energy can be scuttled by lethargic or corrupt officials or govt. agencies. Even after having almost all renewable energy resources available at hand, 70% RE by 2030 looks like a tall order for the CEB, going by the enthusiasm shown by them thus far to the Presidents visions of energy sufficient Sri Lanka, which is a vital factor for any other vistas or visions to be realized. Already time has lapsed for some of the reports to be produced, he says. What if the reports produced are of the same calibre as that of the cabinet paper on IPP’s – Faulty and Manipulative? What hope does Sri Lanka have of getting out of the clasps of the hungry power mafia?

Let’s hope the Cabinet will get the chance to look at actual facts again, and figures of all the IPP’s, make informed and unbiased comparisons, and take decisions depending on facts.

CONCERNED CONSUMER