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Two power plants still shut down, consumers face dark scenario
View(s):The Kelanitissa Power Station and the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant remained under repairs this week amid fears that mounting generation costs will cause the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to renege on a pledge to cut the fuel surcharge it extracts from consumers. On Monday and Tuesday, the Randenigala and Rantembe Hydro Power Stations were also briefly out of commission. They have since been restored but water levels in the reservoirs have not improved.
“The water levels of all hydroelectricity reservoirs have gone down,” said Bandula Chandrasekera, Advisor to the National Electricity Consumer Movement. “Hydro generation is at 27 percent now, whereas last year we generated 51 percent hydro. If we don’t have enough rain within the next few months, it will reduce further and have a drastic effect on power generation.”
The situation is made worse by the repeated failure of Unit 1 of the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant at Norochcholai, Mr. Chandrasekera said. “The problems there are very severe,” he continued. “After the issues are identified, it will take another month or two to restore generation. We learn that the CEB is now under pressure to commission Unit 2 quickly. It is better not to start it suddenly because we have learnt a lesson from the first phase.”
Mr. Chandrasekera pointed out that the CEB Chairman had promised in August 2013 to reduce the fuel surcharge from consumer bills once the utility’s generation costs reduced. “Now, with the crisis, the CEB has a chance to continue the surcharge,” he said. “At present, the CEB charges 10 per cent of the total amount of the bill from those consuming less than 60 units. For those consuming more than 60 units, the fuel surcharge is 40 percent of the total bill. That is a lot of money.”
The CEB dismissed these scenarios as alarmist and also ruled out the possibility of power cuts. “Two power plants are inoperative but the impact of that is not felt in day-to-day power supply,” said Bandula Tilakasena, the CEB’s Additional General Manager (Corporate Strategy). “We have 1000 megawatts of extra capacity from the various power plants in the system.”
Mr. Tilakasena said the CEB had presented its request for tariff revisions to the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL). He said the Commission would do the analysis to decide whether consumers would have to pay more on the bills than they already did. He refused to commit on whether the CEB can provide a concession on the fuel surcharge as promised. “If, during the past six months the actual costs incurred by the CEB were less, this will be translated to the customer,” he said.
The CEB has now paid its dues to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) from where it had bought vast quantities of fuel on credit. “Apart from the customary two months of credit it allows us, we have cleared our backlog of dues,” Mr. Tilakasena said. Meanwhile, Mr. Chandrasekera warned that the more its own plants failed, the more the CEB would have to depend on private power producers. It was usually more expensive to purchase electricity from such companies.
“The CEB has to pay a lot of money to the IPPs (Independent Power Producers) now,” he pointed out, saying he feared that the burden of power plant failures and added costs would be reflected in consumer bills.