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| Sunday, 21 April 2002 |
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Bulk of power consumed by industrial sector by ANTON NONIS Investigations by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) have shown that the bulk of its power was consumed by the industrial sector, where thousands of factories located in the country and this amount exceeds all others put together. This was evident when the board extended a full 24- hour supply for five days last week including the Sinhala-Tamil New Year day. The other two main consumers were the domestic and street lighting sectors. According to CEB General Manager D. C. Wijeratne, last week there had been a drop in demand for power by about 300 mega watts, mainly due to the closure of factories for the New Year vacation. The demand ranged between 1400-1450 mega watts on a normal day, but during the festive season last week, it dropped to about 1050 mega watts. However, with some factories back to normalcy, the power cuts had to be reintroduced from last Thursday and the demand is bound to increase when all of them get into full swing from this week. Apart from this, there had been an appreciable rainfall recorded in the hydro-electric reservoir areas last week, according to CEB sources. As a result, the reservoirs at Castlereigh, Moussakelle, Kotmale and Samanalawewa have shown a rise in their water levels yielding an increase in the inflow. The storage as at present is 212 giga watt hours which is equivalent to a storage of about 16.9 per cent. Two weeks ago, the situation had been extremely poor. The inflow to the reservoirs last Friday led to a power generation of 10.6 giga watt hours, according to the CEB. At least another two weeks of an appreciable inflow is required for an improvement in the present power supply, according to CEB engineers. During this inter-monsoonal period, the Meteorology Department predicts rain in catchment areas located in the western slopes. However, sufficient rain is not predicted in the Victoria and the Randenigala reservoirs unless disturbances occur in the atmosphere that tends to create rain. Under the present slightly improved conditions, the CEB plans to reduce the daytime 2 1/2 hour power cut at least by one hour. However, for a total elimination of power cuts, an inflow of about 450 giga watt hours is required. But an approximate figure to that amount, would enable to restore a substantial improvement in the power supply. All the thermal generators are exploited to generate power and some damaged ones too had been mended. Nevertheless, the CEB urges the co-operation of all consumers to use power wisely due to the present power crisis. |
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