• Power & Energy Secy. says probes including CEB’s still in preliminary stages 

The Power and Energy Ministry is yet to identify the reason behind the islandwide power breakdown that took place last week which was allegedly caused by lightning strikes on the Kotmale to Biyagama transmission line, The Daily Morning learnt.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (12), the Secretary to the Ministry M.P.D.U.K. Mapa Pathirana said that still the investigations are in its preliminary stages and that therefore, it is yet to reach any findings regarding the main cause for the recent islandwide blackout. He also said that it will take some more days in order to come to a proper conclusion and further said that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will also be able to find a cause since they are conducting a separate investigation into the matter. Speaking further, he said that the Ministry has appointed the best officials to look into the matter and that they will therefore definitely come up with new findings other than the claimed technical errors. When he was queried about why the reports of investigations conducted into previous outages have not been made public, he said that the recommendations and findings have been published in the Government’s Gazette notification by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL).

Meanwhile, at a public consultation programme held yesterday at the Ministry, in order to obtain public insights regarding the electricity tariff revision,experts in the power and energy sector highlighted the importance of increasing the use of renewable energy sources like wind, hydropower, and solar energy to generate electricity. In the particular discussion held between Ministry officials and other stakeholders such as politicians, power and energy experts, and the CEB, energy sector experts said that renewable energy would be the only solution for generating electricity at a low cost. They also highlighted that if the Government enacts many programmes to make more opportunities in the renewable energy sector, that would be a good remedy to reduce the electricity tariff. However, in response to the stakeholders’ proposals and queries, the Ministry and the CEB officials said that they are making every possible effort to go for a reduction of the electricity bill next January.

Several attempts made to contact the CEB Spokesperson Noel Priyantha and the PUCSL for further information on the electricity tariff revision and the ongoing investigations conducted by the CEB into the recent islandwide power outage, proved futile.