News
CEB powerless in event of major breakdown
View(s):The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy claim that power outages experienced in certain areas of the country this week were mainly due to adverse weather conditions that prevailed in the evenings. Authorities however, concede that the national grid is still not fully prepared to meet the loss of an entire power plant, given that the peak power demand continues to remain high due to the intense heat.
Power outages occurring over several days were reported from areas just outside Colombo. Pic by Amila Gamage
Power outages occurring over several days were reported from areas just outside Colombo, such as Wattala, Mount Lavinia and Homagama. The outages lasted between one to three hours, according to reports.
Director (Development) of the Ministry of Power and Energy and CEB Media Spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena attributed the outages to damage caused to the transmission system by the freak weather. “We have had heavy rain and high winds this week and the weather has brought down trees and severely damaged power lines,” he said, adding that maintenance work done to repair the system in some areas could in turn cause power outages in others while such maintenance was ongoing.
Mr. Jayawardena though, conceded the national grid was still not completely foolproof. “We currently have a combined capacity of 3900 megawatts, but only about 2800 megawatts is assured for the national grid at any given time. This is due to the limits of resources such as hydropower and wind power, which are available only during certain periods.”
Meanwhile, the CEB had also initiated a program to supply electricity via a loan scheme to about 200,000 identified families that had access to electricity but did not have the financial means to purchase it. About 100, 000 families had already been provided with electricity as part of this scheme by the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. This means that even more customers are now connected to the national grid.
The current peak hour electricity demand had gone up to about 2300 megawatts, which meant there was not much to fall back on in the event a major power plant is knocked out of action, the CEB spokesman pointed out.
In a bid to add some cushion to the national grid, the CEB has already started purchasing power from ACE Power plant located in Embilipitiya. A total of 100 megawatts is now being added to the national grid courtesy of this Independent Power Producer (IPP). The CEB also has an eye on two other IPPs, namely the 100 megawatt Heladhanavi plant in Puttalam and the 25 megawatt ACE Power plant in Matara.
Negotiations have already been started over the Heladhanavi plant but Mr. Jayawardena said it had been complicated as the original owners had sold the plant to a foreign company after the initial Power Purchase Agreement (PPP) which the original owners had with the CEB was not renewed.