16 January 2022 04:24 pm Views - 2165
Claiming that the power supply could be continued without interruptions until next Tuesday (18), Power Minister Gamini Lokuge said today a decision would have to be taken on power cuts if the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) did not provide required fuel stocks to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) until January 22.
He told the media that there would be no power cuts until Tuesday (18) as the CPC had provided 3000 MT of fuel to the CEB.
“We will have a discussion with the CPC tomorrow (17) to obtain required fuel stocks until January 22. If they refuse to do so, we will have to take a decision on power cuts,” he said.
The Minister said engineers had assured that the 3rd unit of the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, which was out of order due to a breakdown, would be restored by January 22, adding 300 MW to the national grid.
He also said there was an issue of hydropower generation due to the prevailing drought and added that Irrigation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa had assured last week to provide continuous water supply to the hydro-power stations until the prevailing crisis was resolved.
“Water in the reservoirs has to be released for drinking purposes and irrigation purposes as well. We had a discussion with Irrigation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa last week and he assured continuous water supply to hydro-power stations until the present crisis is over,” he said.(Ajith Siriwardana)