Janaka Ratnayake faults Power Minister for outage

PUCSL and Presidential candidate Janaka Ratnayake 

• Says power outage had resulted in substantial financial losses to country’s economy
• Criticises CEB top management for creating an ‘unsafe situation’
• Claims recommendations made following last power outage in 2021 have not been implemented 

Former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) and Presidential candidate Janaka Ratnayake yesterday blamed the countrywide power outage on Saturday on Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo, Ratnayake stated that the power outage had resulted in substantial financial losses to the country’s economy. He asserted that both the Minister and the Secretary to the Ministry must take responsibility for the incident.

He also criticised the top management of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), stating that they were responsible for the ‘unsafe situation’. 

Ratnayake highlighted that during his tenure, an order was issued through the special gazette notification No. 2296/38 dated 9 September 2022, directing the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Ceylon Electricity Board to take measures to prevent power outages due to the outage on 3 December 2021.

“We conducted a public hearing and provided seven recommendations to the Ministry of Power and the Ceylon Electricity Board through the order we issued. One significant recommendation was the updating of electricity safety principles and safety standards measures by the CEB. However, this has not been implemented thus far. Furthermore, the investigation revealed the presence of faulty wiring and weaknesses in the grounding within the network,” he noted. 

He challenged the Government to prove if these recommendations were met. “If these recommendations are implemented, our power system will be safe. But even now it is in an unsafe condition,” he maintained. 

The Minister of Power and the Secretary to the Ministry of Power should bear responsibility for this situation. Their previous actions, according to Ratnayake, involved prioritising compliance with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over enhancing the capabilities of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). Furthermore, he alleged that there are plans to dismantle the CEB into separate entities for eventual sale and gain more powers for the Minister. 

“If such a weak Minister is given dictatorial powers in the electricity industry, the future of the country will certainly be dark,” he noted.