CEB mulls power purchasing

By Rukshana Rizwie

With the prevailing warm weather and dry spells, the Ceylon Electricity Board(CEB) said it was still studying proposals on whether to proceed with the purchase of two Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to bridge an energy deficit in the national grid, CEB Chairman Anura Wijayapala told the Sunday Observer.

Wijayapala acknowledged that several proposals had been presented to the CEB including the purchase of power from the IPP. “There are several proposals all of which we are still studying,” he said. “We’ve been told to expect rains this weekend, so we are hopeful that we could meet energy demands.”

The CEB has not reached a decision yet, but a formal announcement would be made next week after consultations with various stakeholders in the industry, he said. CEB spokesperson Sulakshana Jayawardena who also serves as Director, Planning and Development at the Ministry of Power and Energy told the Sunday Observer that discussions on the IPP were on-going.

“At present, we are considering whether to obtain the Embiliptiya Ace 100 Megawatt thermal power plant and the 60 Megawatt Ace Matara Power Station on lease or outright purchase as an emergency measure,” he said.

A spokesman for the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka said they have not been officially contacted regarding the IPPs. “If it is an emergency measure, the chances are such that we might not be contacted since it’s a different procedure, whereby a proposal is submitted to cabinet directly.”

A cabinet paper, however, has been submitted this week to aggressively pursue a ‘demand side management program’ spearheaded by the Ministry of Power and Energy. “We have requested for a Presidential Task force to be appointed and pursue this project. We have realised that 400 megawatts of energy can be saved if we have better energy management.”