Power crisis looming

By Ajantha Kumara Agalakada  

With the intense dry weather continuing, and in order to provide electricity continuously without any interruption the Ministry of Power and Energy has decided to purchase 128 Megawatts of power from private sources immediately.

  
The Cabinet of Ministers had approved the Cabinet Memorandum presented by Minister Mahinda Amaraweera in this regard.  

Having considered the prevailing situation of the dry weather pattern a power outage is becoming necessary in order to maintain the Power Transmission System, and in order to avoid such a situation it has become urgently necessary to purchase 128 Megawatts of power to overcome this situation the Cabinet paper has declared. The Minister has considered the request of the Electricity Board in presenting this Cabinet Paper.  

With the fall in the water levels of the reservoirs of the Power Stations, the quantity of water released for power generation has also been regulated. The Ministry has requested the Electricity Board to add this additional 128 Megawatts supply to the main grid before further reduction of water levels in the reservoirs.