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37,000MT of diesel for power will only last 7 days, what will happen after that?: Trade Union

23 Feb 2022

People are blaming the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for the power cuts, which is partially fair, but the root cause is not acknowledged and the 37,000MT of diesel received today will only suffice for another 7 days says CEB Senior Engineers Union (CEBSEU) Spokesperson Nandika Pathirage. He made this statement while speaking to The Morning today (23). "People are in a helpless situation and are blaming the CEB for the power cuts. Today the Government released USD 33 million for 37,000MT of diesel, but the fact remains that if 8000MT is given for consumer use by CPC, the CEB is left with 31,000MT of diesel which will only suffice for another 7 days. What is the next step? People need to understand that the problem is not a shortage of fuel, but a lack of Dollars to pay for fuel. The CEB will once again have to resort to power cuts after the next 7 days," said Pathirage.  He further added that Sri Lanka is facing a severe crisis, which a lot of the population has not realised as yet.  "People are naïve and believe when the news says X million dollars has been released for fuel, but the fact is that those millions of dollars are actually a small amount when providing electricity to an entire country. The engineers of the past are also to be blamed. When more renewable options were available, they resorted to a penny wise and pound foolish approach, and today the entire country is suffering," Pathirage added.  Additionally, Pathirage stated that the CEB has no plan in the pipeline for continuous supply of electricity if there is no fuel to run the plants and no money to purchase fuel either.  "As an engineer, I myself am embarrassed to talk about the current state of the country. It is really sad to see how people anxiously await power cuts, and are deprived of the basic need of electricity. As a consumer myself, I would not like to be told to limit electricity use or face power cuts due to the negligence and mismanagement of a country. Likewise, people are severely inconvenienced.  The CEB has no plan in the pipeline on how to continuously supply uninterrupted electricity to the population if the dollar crisis is not acknowledged and resolved. We can get any amount of fuel only if we have dollars. No dollars means no fuel and no electricity," he  stated.  Pathirage said the calculation of power generation is simple.  "From 37,000MT of diesel, if 8000MT is taken by the CPC for consumer use, and considering the remaining 31,000MT of diesel is given to the CEB, 4000MT of diesel is required for the diesel power plants to function. Which means, we have exactly 1 week of power generation from this consignment," he said.  Earlier today, the Ministry of Energy announced that a payment of USD 35.3 million was made last night (22) to a Singaporean company for the diesel tanker docked outside the Colombo Port. The diesel consignment amounted to 37,000MT.  Meanwhile, last week Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe said that the daily demand of diesel for consumer use has increased from 5,500MT per week to 8,000MT per week.


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