Sri Lanka’s corporates stunned by recent power outages
While this week hasn’t been ‘easy’ for local corporates especially in the manufacturing sector owing to intermittent power outages, survival has been the keyword. However if the power crisis spills over to next week, many say it’ll be tough to sustain bottomlines.
“Most industries are equipped with back-up power or generators. They can run for about 5-51/2 hours with it, but if this continues for more than 8-10 hours at a stretch there’ll be an issue as they will not be able to sustain their processes and they are stunned at this point because a long term solution is needed,” a company director said.
He said that small to medium industries were the most affected as they couldn’t complete certain orders on time, etc. “For most of them back-up power is expensive and they’re at a dilemma.” He added that some firms were forced to airfreight their orders as they missed timelines, incurring ‘exorbitant’ costs. The country’s power grid failed three times this year and twice in a single day, last Sunday, with senior Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) officials publicly apologising for the failure. Then the CEB announced seven and a half-hour power cuts on a daily basis for two days which ended on Thursday morning. The trouble started when the Norochch-olai Coal Power Plant which supplies 900 Megawatts (MW) or 42 per cent of the national grid packed up.
The food industry was the worst affected, according to a food retailer and some restaurateurs. Last Sunday by 8.00 pm most popular fast food joints, eateries and coffee houses didn’t accommodate new customers while the ones already inside ate under candlelight.
President Maithripala Sirisena will be presented with a committee report on March 22 containing short term solutions against any future island-wide power failure, Thilak Siyambalapitiya, Minister, Power and Renewable Energy was quoted in the media as saying.
Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Upul Jayasuriya told the Business Times that the BOI has made a request from the CEB to guarantee an uninterrupted power supply in the zones. “There hasn’t been an issue so far,” he said on Thursday.
Mahendra Jayasekera, CEO Lanka Walltiles PLC (LWL) told the Business Times that as their factory has 6-7 hour generators, LWL didn’t see a major impact, but if power outages continue this week, they will face an issue.
“If one line goes out of service, the remaining lines must be able to carry both the load they were carrying before the event, plus the load carried by the line that is out of service,” he said. Many industrialists said that they hope the CEB will address the issue in a sustainable manner for the long term.