Cabinet nod for new electricity policy guidelines tilted towards renewables

The Cabinet nod has been granted to draft   ‘General Policy Guidelines for the Electricity Industry’ to reflect the government’s recent policy decision to achieve 70 percent of electricity generation from renewable energy by 2030 and to halt plans to build any new coal power plants.

Last month, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to achieve net carbon neutrality in power generation by 2050, while setting a goal to increase power generation from renewable energy sources to 70 percent by 2030, and halting plans to setup new coal power plants.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers on Monday approved the draft ‘General Policy Guidelines for the Electricity Industry’ prepared subject to section 5 of Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009 as per the resolution tabled by Power Minister Gamini Lokuge.  The prepared guidelines are now expected to be tabled in the Parliament shortly.

With the issuance of the updated ‘General Policy Guidelines’, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) would be compelled to formulate the least cost long – term generation plan applicable for the period from 2022 to 2041 as per the these guidelines, according to the Government Information Department.

According to previous ‘General Policy Guidelines’ issued in 2019, the country was targeting to meet 50 percent of primary power generation from renewable energy sources.

The country’s power sector regulator Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUSSL) has already instructed the CEB to submit a fresh least cost long – term generation plan in line with government policy. As a party to the Paris Agreement, Sri Lanka has already submitted the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) by committing for four unconditional and 10.5 percent conditional emission reductions with respective to Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario, with a target to become carbon neutral by 2060.