(UTV | COLOMBO) – The Ceylon Electricity Board in response to an explanation sought by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka has in its report cited that the unplanned power outages on February 3 was due to the islandwide manual load shedding due to increased demand.
In its report the CEB cites that “the islandwide rotational manual load shedding done between 10:45 am and 5 pm that day is an unplanned activity.”
The CEB cites that it had to arrive at the decision instantly in view of managing the system stability as well as demand in a very economical manner.
“In addition we wish to emphasise that the interruptions to fuel supply by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has become a routine problem resulting from CEB’s inability to meet its financial obligations to independent power producers,” the report said.
The CEB finds that the inability to ensure operation of one or more of these power plants and when it goes offline, the possibility of going for instantaneous power outages are highly likely. “We have urged repeatedly the Power and Energy Ministry and the government to address this serious issue pertaining to the supply of power.”
The CEB says it is yet to find a lasting solution to the crisis faced by the state owned enterprise thus far.