Power cuts to end from 10 April, assures Ravi K

Saturday, 6 April 2019 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Minister Ravi Karunanayake

Power and Energy and Business Development Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday assured that the countrywide power cuts will end from 10 April.

“The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Ministry, and I deeply regret the inconvenience to the public. I responsibly say that the public will not have to suffer from 10 April. However, we have to use energy very carefully and conservatively, for another three or four months,” the Minister said during an observation tour of the Kelanitissa Power Plant.

“We are currently planning to supply electricity to meet public demand without any shortage in another 3 to 4 months,” Minister Karunanayake added.

He said measures will be taken to supply a household power request in 24 hours and request from industry in two weeks.

“The condition that had arisen today in the country affects all of us, but some do not understand the severity of it. Government assets are wasted in many places. Electricity too. We have asked to turn off unnecessarily burning street lamps, but some people do not care about this acute national problem,” the Minister rued.

He asked the public to use power conservatively as a long-term solution even after the scheduled power cuts ended on 10 April.

The Minister said the observation tour of the Kelanitissa Power Plant was organised to find out whether the Power Plant is being successfully operated, and to inquire into its shortcomings and what needs to be developed further.

Minister Karunanayake said the current power crisis will be tackled in in three stages to provide satisfactory solutions in long, medium, and short terms.

“We presented the long-term agenda last week in Parliament. Next week, it will be presented to the Cabinet for approval. We are looking at how to add 3,500 to 3,500 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.”

“As a medium-term solution, we will seek to find ways to properly operate the existing power plants that need to be respired. In the short term, we will try to find out how to add 500 to 600 megawatts to the national grid.”

The Minister added that they will look for ways to fill the annual power deficiency of about 300 megawatts.

“Although hydroelectricity doesn’t make a contribution to fill the gap, we need to plan. In fact, had it been planned earlier, Kelanitissa could be generating another 500 MW to 600 MW by now. However, due to lack of planning, we face such crises today.”

He said in future, long-term plans for power generation will be made following discussions with all stakeholders, including the planning units and intelligence units.