Minister Kanchana Wijesekera and State officials during their meeting with foreign consultants

The government officials and foreign consultants met yesterday to discuss the next phases of Sri Lanka’s electricity sector reform process, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said.
The Cabinet of Ministers early this week approved the proposed reform path for Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and endorsed the new Electricity Bill, which is slated to be presented in parliament for approval.

“I met with the officials of the reform secretariat yesterday to discuss the next steps of the electricity sector reform process. ADB has recruited and extended the services of Dr. Pankaj Batra, former Chairman of the Central Electricity Authority of India to assist the Reform Secetariat on the National System Operator, Prof. Arosha Adikaram, Chair of the Human Resources Department, University of Colombo to assist on the Human Resource Management of CEB and Debasis Mohapatra, Executive ADB consultant on institutional strengthening,” Minister Wijesekera said.

“We discussed the observations made by the President, Cabinet Ministers, Development Agencies such as ADB, JICA, World Bank, USAID, the inclusion of regulations necessary for a smooth transition, consumer protection laws, constitutional requirements, tariff regulations and amendments to the Sinhala draft bill necessary before gazetting and presenting to  parliament for approval,” he added.

The proposed bill seeks to unbundle the CEB into four distribution companies, consolidate its thermal plants into one entity, and group the hydro plants into another.

The hydro plants under CEB will remain a fully State-owned enterprise without any divestment.

The restructuring plan includes the establishment of a transmission company responsible for system control and procurement. Additionally, CEB renewables will be segregated into a separate entity.