Power crisis ahead, say engineers

By Shelani Perera

With the prevailing dry weather, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union has warned of a power crisis at the end of this year due to the delay in the implementation of the Kerawalapitiya power project.

The CEB Engineers Union claims that despite several warnings to the Board of the dry weather patterns and the change in the environment, the project did not come into operation as scheduled.

CEB Engineers Union president Ananda Piyathilake told The Sunday Times the country would invariably face a power crisis.

“It will be either at the end of this year or early next year. We informed the authorities well in advance that the power project has to be implemented. Introducing power cuts is not an accepted alternative. The Kerawalapitiya project was to be completed by the end of this year but now we understand that it will be completed by the end of next year’ said Mr. Piyathilake.

The Union also warned that purchasing emergency power would be very costly, especially when it was done during a power crisis.

Meanwhile Power and Energy Minister John Seneviratne told The Sunday Times the authorities were concerned about the present weather conditions and also the cost of power generation.

“We cannot talk about power cuts right now, but we are doing everything to avoid such a crisis. Initial work on the Kerawalapitiya project is underway”, he said.