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Minister Ranawaka accuses CEB of financial crime
A top Government minister yesterday raised issues over why the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) had called for international bids to procure 55 megawatts of power when the state utility had declared that 460 MW were locally available.
Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, a former Power and Energy minister, said yesterday that the establishments such as the BMICH, the Colombo Port, the Hambantota Port, several state institutions, private commercial establishments and supermarkets had large capacity generators capable of producing electricity. These had been included among more than 1,000 local customers identified by the CEB.
The minister said an added advantage in buying electricity from local consumers was that the CEB only incurred an energy charge whereas if power was purchased from an international supplier, it would have to incur both capacity and energy charges, while the plant would have to be dismantled when the agreement ended.
The CEB has already published a tender notice for International Competitive Bidding (ICB) for the supply of electricity to the CEB on a short-term basis under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The deadline for submitting bids ended on Friday (April 8).
According to the notice, the plant should start commercial operations before April 28 and the term of the agreement is due to end by July 28. The tariff would be in two parts, one for capacity availability and one for the energy dispatched.
Meanwhile, a document submitted by the CEB’s Additional General Manager Y.M. Samarasinghe to General Manager M. C. Wickremesekera says there are 1,096 local customers who have their own generators capable of supplying electricity to the CEB. He says the total capacity of these generators amounts to 462.6 MVA, equivalent to 462 megawatts.
Minister Ranawaka said the former governments had bought electricity from local customers under embedded generation programmes, including 65MW in 2012 when he was the minister in charge. “Why is there a need to call for international bids when even the CEB’s assessment reveals 462 MW is available locally?” the minister asked.
He said the CEB’s assessment noted that buying 55MW through international bidding would cost about Rs. 6 billion, though he believed it would be far more. “If there is a deficit in energy needs, the best option for the CEB is to buy power from these self-generation sources. This could be done in a week. We could buy 55MW, 100MW or even 300MW depending on the need. It is a financial crime for the CEB to buy emergency power through international bidding while disregarding local self-generation sources,” he charged.
CEB Chairman Anura Wijepala was overseas and unavailable for comment. When contacted, the Ministry’s Media Spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena said that according to information available to him, the CEB had decided on buying 55MW through international bidding after conducting a survey of immediate energy needs. “They have calculated that they would be able to immediately obtain about 60MW from self generation projects. That still leaves about 55MW and the CEB has called for tenders to meet that shortage,” he explained.