• PUCSL studying implementation

The Power Sector Reform Secretariat (PSRS) has started addressing the prerequisites that should be fulfilled in order for the newly-passed Sri Lanka Electricity Act to fully come into operation, The Sunday Morning learns. 

PSRS Head Dr. Pradeep Perera told The Sunday Morning that the new law provided a 12-month period for the prerequisites to be fulfilled. “We have already started most of it,” said Dr. Perera. 

Following a contested and criticised path, the Sri Lanka Electricity Bill was passed in Parliament on Thursday (6) with amendments. 

It aims to repeal the Ceylon Electricity Board Act No.17 of 1969 and the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No.20 of 2009. 

Primarily, the new law seeks to restructure the State-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) into independent corporate entities that will be respectively responsible for electricity generation, transmission, distribution, trade, supply, and procurement. 

However, several parties contested the bill in the Supreme Court, after which the court determined that several provisions of the law will only come into operation after the Preliminary Transfer Plan, the National Electricity Policy including the National Tariff Policy, the Annual Power Procurement Plan, and the Long-Term Power System Development Plan are prepared, approved, and are in place. 

The PSRS was appointed with Cabinet approval last year in order to implement the institutional reforms. However, the Supreme Court has instructed for the PSRS to include five persons to be its members with relevant experience in electrical engineering, power system planning and operation, human resource management, State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) restructuring, law, and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) or finance.

“The [current] secretariat was appointed with Cabinet approval last year. We have been working on it since then. Under the provisions of the act, the Government may reconstitute it,” said Dr. Perera. 

Meanwhile, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Director General Damitha Kumarasinghe told The Sunday Morning that the new act had some clauses that the PUCSL needed to implement as well. “We are studying those,” he said. 

A representative from the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) said that they would be willing to work with the Government and the stakeholders to move amendments that would make it a better act. 

In a statement on Friday (7), the union said that it was not content with the proceedings in Parliament as only four hours had been given for the Sectoral Oversight Committee to have deliberations and no time had been given to interested stakeholders to present their concerns.  

“The Minister of Power and Energy’s attitude is such that Dr. Harsha de Silva almost begged to amend Section 10 of the bill, so that the responsibility of the ‘continuous supply of electricity’ is vested with the National System Operator, where 12 or more companies are to be established without any oversight of continuous power supply, but to no avail,” said the statement.

Multiple attempts to contact Power and Energy Ministry Secretary Dr. Sulakshana Jayawardena proved futile.