Kelanitissa shut down Power generation awarded to private plant at Rs. 40 million daily loss

• Only 12 shipments of coal have arrived in Sri Lanka with the unloading of the 12th shipment facing uncertainty

By Kalani Kumarasinghe  

Power generation at the Kelanitissa power plant has come to a halt since Wednesday evening, with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) suspending fuel supply required for power generation.  

“The CPC has for some unknown reason suspended fuel supply to the Kelanitissa plant, although we are informed that CPC has sufficient stocks of Naphthalene required for three days,” President of the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union Nihal Weeraratne said.  

“Power generation has been awarded to West Coast Power Pvt. Ltd. to meet the country’s electricity demands, costing the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) around Rs. 10 per unit,” he revealed. As a result the CEB incurs a daily loss of Rs. 40 million per day, Weeraratne charged.   

He questioned as to why two state entities, namely the CEB and the CPC which are under the Ministry of Power and Energy have awarded power generation to a private company. “It begs the question as to why the subject Minister is causing such a great loss to the country,” he said. 

 
Meanwhile only 12 shipments of coal have arrived in Sri Lanka with the unloading of the 12th shipment facing uncertainty, Weeraratne said.   

He charged that the Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has failed to secure payments for these shipments, casting doubt over the country’s power generation capabilities over the next few months. “We have a limited window of opportunity and the Minister seems to be ignorant of this. I have been criticized for my statements in the past. 
But the more delays we face in unloading these shipments, the more likely we are to face blackouts in July,” he opined. 

the Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has failed to secure payments for these shipments.

• The Minister of Power and Energy has failed to secure payments for these shipments
• CPC has sufficient stocks of Naphthalene required for three days
• CPC has suspended fuel supply required for power generation