Power cuts cannot be ruled out in the next couple of years, due to dilly dallying by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to award tenders to set up power plants under the Long Term Generation Expansion Plan (LTGEP) of the power supplier, a top official of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) told Sunday Observer Business.
He said the issue is that there has not been a single power plant commissioned since 2015 although several power plants were listed in the LTGEP.
PUCSL Director General Damitha Kumarasinghe said the contract for the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) power plant which was tendered towards the end of 2016 has not yet been awarded.
Such delays need to be addressed to avert a power crisis. “We need to get the LNG power plant up and running by next year,” Kumarasinghe said.
However, power sector experts are of the view that the commissioning of the LNG plant will be delayed up to 2020 or 2021.
“The commissioning of the over 1000 MW renewable energy plants will enable the country to have sufficient energy in the next two years.
It has taken around one and a half years since tenders were called for the LNG plant but to-date awarding has not been made,” Kumarasinghe said. The energy sector regulator has been pressurizing the CEB to complete the awarding of contracts for power plants, but the process has been slow. The option that has been adopted by the CEB is to go for costly emergency procurement of power.
The government went for a 60MW emergency procurement last year and is planning to go for a 100MW purchase under emergency procurement.
However, CEB unions have objected to the purchase for six months which would cost the CEB a staggering amount.
Energy sector experts said that the country has to go for emergency power purchase due to the drop in rainfall and the delay to implement new power plants. The cost of a unit under emergency procurement would range between Rs. 28-30.
The PUCSL and the CEB have locked horns over power generation cost estimates and expediting the implementation of power plants under the (LTGEP).
Since commissioning the Norochcholai coal power plant in 2015 no power plant has been commissioned up to now. The demand for electricity is estimated to grow by around 200MW per year and currently the shortfall is around 500MW.