Report concludes CEB in clear violation of Electricity Act

• Says Feb. 3 load shedding cost Rs.188mn to economy 
• Reveals power cut on that day should have been avoided
• CEB had nearly 400 MW in excess in daytime on Feb. 3
• No attempts made to extend credit limit from CPC to ensure uninterrupted supply 

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has clearly violated the Electricity Act for failing to secure the approval of the energy sector regulator, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), for the electricity supply interruption in certain parts of the country, according to a report by the committee appointed to investigate the sudden electricity supply interruption on
February 3, 2020. 

“As per the Section 10 of condition 30 of the electricity transmission and bulk supply licence No: EL/T/09-002 issued to the CEB, the transmission licensee is required to obtain the prior approval of the PUCSL, the utilities regulating authority, for every scheduled interruption of electricity supply, other than interruptions necessary due to maintenance. Not getting the prior approval from the PUCSL for scheduled load shedding is a violation of the relevant conditions of the said transmission licence. Hence, it is a violation of the Electricity Act,” the committee concluded. 

The committee confirmed that the CEB had not obtained the prior approval from the PUCSL for the scheduled load shedding on February 3 while noting that the said electricity power supply interruption was of the manual rotational load shedding type and hence, cannot be attributed to an emergency interruption.

As per the report, the sudden electricity supply interruption on the particular day between 10:45 a.m. and 17:02 p.m. had caused Rs.188 million loss to the economy. 

The report outlined that the CEB easily could have avoided the supply disruption.

“The CEB should have endeavoured to manage the situation without the above interruption by proper communication and coordination with the Power and Energy Ministry, CPC and Treasury in adopting better planning and situation analysis since January 2020,” it said.

Further, the report also emphasised that the CEB could have dispatched 1.4 GWh of available hydro between 10:45 a.m. and 17:02 p.m. on the particular day, without significant impact on the hydro storage, similar to the dispatch of January 27, 2020 and
avoided the interruption.

“... the system could have still supplied the load demand without a problem because there was nearly 400 MW available in excess in the daytime on February 3, 2020 and the daytime demand could have been easily met. 

Therefore, the February 3 incident cannot be considered as an emergency situation and it is a planned load shedding,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the committee noted that the CEB had failed to submit any documents to prove that it requested an extension of the credit limit from Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) for uninterrupted supply of fuel in order to avoid the power disruption. The committee strongly recommended the CEB to initiate action to implement the generation options stipulated in the approved long-term generation plan, to avoid such incidents in the future.

“Due to long start-up and shutdown sequences as well as stability reasons, it is customary in any power system to keep thermal power plants as the generation base and add hydro power with relatively shorter start-up and shutdown sequences for peaking.

However, in the Sri Lankan context, a substantial portion of the thermal generation uses expensive fuel such as diesel and HF4.

Therefore, the committee highly recommends to initiate action to implement the generation options stipulated in the approved long-term generation plans to meet the future energy demand, which is on the rise significantly,” the report stated.

It also urged the CEB to adopt a robust “work flow” practice for system control operations in view of the importance of the nature of operations and implications and supported by a computerised information management system interconnected with the SCADA system.

“Manual intervention at the System Control in deciding the optimum combination of electricity supply sources at a given time should be minimised as per the global practice. This will not only help minimising the possible room for potential manipulations but also will save the country’s rupees billions on electricity generation costs,” the committee members pointed out. 

The six-member committee was chaired by Power Ministry Secretary K.H.D.K. Samarakoon. The other members comprised of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology Dean Prof. Rahula Attalage, Public Finance Department Additional Director General E.A. Ratnaseela, Power and Energy Ministry Director Development Sulakshana Jayawardena and University of Moratuwa Electrical Engineering Department Senior Lecturers Dr. D.P. Chandima and Dr. Lilantha Samaranayake.