The Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Janaka Ratnayaka has revealed why the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has been forced to impose power cuts despite announcing otherwise earlier.
The PUCSL had initially said power cuts will not be imposed until April, but announced that power cuts for a period of 45 minutes and 1 hour will be imposed in two slots today.
Explaining the reason for the change in decision, Ratnayaka said the decision taken previously not to impose power cuts was made on two key assumptions.
He said one assumption was that the CEB will be in possession of sufficient oil stocks to generate power and the other was that the power plants will operate without any breakdowns.
Stating that it has come to their realization that they do not possess the required stocks of oil to operate the generators, Ratnayake said that as of now more than 400 MW of generators are out of order and remain disconnected from the National Grid.
The PUCSL Chairman further said that they have no choice but to commence power shedding from today through the proposed power cuts.
He announced that scheduled power cuts will take place between 02.30 pm – 06.30 pm and 06.30 pm to 10.00 pm today.
Janaka Ratnayaka said that power cuts will be imposed in four different areas for a period of 01 hour between 02.30 pm – 06.30 pm.
He added that a power cut for a period of 45 minutes will be imposed in other areas between 06.30 pm to 10.00 pm.
Pointing out this is an unavoidable situation, the PUCSL Chairman said the CEB has run out of necessary diesel, furnace oil, and naphtha to generate power. (NewsWire)