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Public hearing over 3 December power outage

09 Jan 2022

BY Pamodi Waravita  The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) will be conducting a public hearing on the islandwide power outage that occured on 3 December 2021, amidst allegations of sabotage levelled at trade unions.  Speaking to The Morning, PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said that public notices will be carried on newspapers this week to carry out the public hearing on this issue within the next 28 days. “We have to find the real reason for the outages,” he added. Two power outages were reported in Sri Lanka over the end of November and the beginning of December 2021, with the one on 3 December 2021 being an islandwide blackout. Allegations have been levelled at the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) for deliberately disrupting the power supply, although the CEBEU has claimed that their trade union action had no connection to it. The CEBEU has been engaged in trade union action in protest of the controversial Yugadanvi agreement, signed by the Government in September 2021.  A complaint has been filed at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) by CEB Chairman M.C.M. Ferdinando, over the power failure at the end of November whilst internal investigations are being carried out about the one on 3 December. The Power Ministry also appointed a committee to investigate the outages. However, print media reported yesterday (9) that the cause of the outage is yet to be identified by the said committee, although they are yet to rule out deliberate attempts at sabotage. Meanwhile, short power outages have been common last week due to the power crisis experienced by the CEB as a result of a lack of fuel to its power stations. However, reports show that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) released a stock of 10,000 MT of furnace oil to the CEB last Friday night (7), to resolve the power crisis.


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