Govt. wants public and private generators connected to national grid

Janaka Ratnayake
Pic by Nimalsiri Edirisinghe

By Yohan Perera
The government yesterday said the generators at large public and private organisations, which have the estimated capacity of generating up to 3,000MW collectively, should be added to the national grid as a precaution to tackle the current power crisis. 

“There is a generator at the Central Bank and one at Sri Lanka Telecom; together with the other state and private sector establishments, these should be added to the national grid. 

We have already spoken with around six institutions and they have agreed to connect their generators to the national grid,” Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Chairman Janaka Ratnayake told reporters in Colombo, yesterday. 

He also said switching off of air conditioners, sign boards, street lights, etc. for at least two hours need to be implemented to navigate the current crisis. 

Meanwhile, Ratnayake said a decision would be made on imposing power cuts today after studying the situation.
“The CEB has asked for our approval for power cuts but the President had instructed the Treasury to release Rs.93 billion to make payments for the fuel needed to generate electricity. We therefore will have to make an assessment by carrying out a study on the situation with regard to the power plants. It is likely that we will be able to do without power cuts as it has been decided by the political leadership. If not, we might have to go for nine-hour power cuts as the third option but it is an unlikely event,” he said.

He also said the PUCSL had warned of a long-term power crisis in 2016 but no action had been taken to avoid it. 
“Absence of new mega power projects has paved the way for this long-term crisis,” he noted.