• Cites sudden changes in electricity dispatch order  

In the wake of the Technical Engineers and Supervisors Association of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) raising concerns over the CEB’s recent decision to purchase electricity from private thermal power plants despite heavy rains filling reservoirs to maximum capacity for hydropower generation, the CEB defended the move, stating that the purchase may have been made to address sudden changes in the electricity dispatch order. 

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (11), the CEB Media Spokesperson engineer Dhanushka Parakramasinghe denied any ulterior motives behind the decision and assured that it was done to ensure a stable power supply, in response to allegations on the need for such purchases when hydropower plants and the Norochcholai coal power plant could meet the current electricity demand. Parakramasinghe said: "There is a dispatch order based on availability and the cost of power plants. Accordingly, we use all the available sources to their maximum levels. For example, hydropower generates about 50% of the total electricity requirement, and we also use coal and other sources. In this process, the purchase might have been necessary to address certain sudden changes that occurred in the dispatch order."  He further stressed that the decision was not made to favour any private entities. “I don’t know the exact date of the purchase, but it wasn’t done for any other purpose. It was simply to ensure the smooth supply of electricity,” he added. Parakramasinghe also mentioned that the CEB would also release a video on its website to explain the process to the public.

However, the Technical Engineers and Supervisors Association questioned the timing of the purchase. The Association’s Vice President, Nandana Udayakumara called for an investigation into the decision. He argued that recent rains had provided sufficient water to run hydropower plants at full capacity, and that the Norochcholai coal power plant had enough coal stocks to operate fully. Udayakumara also pointed out a discrepancy in the CEB’s operational records. “Last week, the records showed that only two-thirds of the Norochcholai power plant was operational. One unit was even running at low capacity. Despite this, electricity was purchased from private thermal power plants,” he said. He questioned as to whose interests were being served by the purchases, especially when cheaper sources of electricity, such as hydropower and coal were available. “In this situation, when hydropower and Norochcholai are capable of meeting the demand, the decision to rely on thermal power plants raises serious concerns. For whose benefit was this electricity bought?,” Udayakumara queried.