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CEBEU, PUCSL at loggerheads passing the buck
View(s):Engineers of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) are at loggerheads with the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), saying some of the Regulator’s senior officials are “actively and openly supporting the anti-coal lobby and the LNG Mafia”.
The CEB Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) has written to PUCSL Chairman Saliya Mathews expressing “grave concerns” about the conduct of his staff resulting in “clear loss of confidence” in the Regulator’s activities. It says the PUCSL has not fulfilled any of the roles expected of it. “Instead, PUCSL had become a highly biased, politically manipulated entity that is not only increasingly expensive to maintain, but has also become a great impediment to the development of the sector,” the Engineers claim. Certain officials are “openly promoting avenues for those with vested interests to make inroads into the lucrative power sector, which the CEBEU had protected as a trade union over the years.”
The PUCSL is meant to be an independent commission that receives policy guidelines, not orders, from the Govt, the union points out. However, some officials participated in various committees headed by the political authority and other “powerful personalities”. They took orders at such committees and then forced the CEB too, to comply. The engineers accuse the PUCSL staff of “simply pleasing the political authority for their survival and thereby, opening doors to political manipulation”.
Millions of rupees are spent to maintain the PUCSL, but its objectives are not achieved, the CEBEU alleges. The CEB, on its own, electrified Sri Lanka and brought down system losses from 20% in 2000, to less than 10%; fought for low-cost power generation, lowering electricity prices as a result; extended the grid to the North and East; and built two large hydro plants, despite stiff resistance. By contrast, it asks, what improvement could the PUCSL claim to have brought about in terms of power quality, availability and reliability? “What has the PUCSL achieved, other than spending millions on consultants and merely publishing the creations of such consultants as PUCSL publications,” the union asks.
Among the most damaging allegations made by the CEBEU is that, some senior PUCSL employees are siding with the anti-coal lobby and LNG mafia. “As per the Electricity Act, no generating plant could be constructed unless it is first identified in the Long-Term Generation Expansion Plan (LTGP),” it says. “Thus, it is well known that CEB’s LTGP acts as a hindrance to oil/LNG Mafia for them to push the oil/LNG power plants of their choice as coal plants are beyond their economic or technical capability. Thus, such mafia groups openly operate with PUCSL to realise their objective, namely to remove coal from LTGP and force oil/LNG.”
The PUCSL this week responded strongly to the CEBEU with its own letter. The Chairman said none of the CEBEU’s assertions were supported by valid information. He called for specific facts to substantiate the union’s allegations and observed that, none of the relevant concerns were raised by the CEB management.
Mr Mathew states that the PUCSL will work as an independent Regulator. It has always maintained this status by adhering to governing legislation. He denies that, his officials are obliged to or, carry out orders given by committees headed by politicians or others, ignoring Govt. policy. He calls on the CEBEU to name the committees that have issued such instructions and to name, among other things, the specific activities the Commission’s staff executed to please the political authority for their survival.
The Chairman says the PUCSL saved Rs 151 billion for the country by identifying and disallowing unreasonable costs included in the tariff proposals of the CEB, “further saving Rs 2.5 billion by preventing unjustified procurement of emergency power in 2016, reduction of more than 50% of electrocutions in the country, facilitating over 10,000 consumer complaints, developing vital regulations, rules, codes, methodologies and guidelines for the benefit of the industry, electricity consumers and the country”.
The PUCSL accuses the CEB of delaying the LTGP. The CEB “has not commenced construction of any major base load power plant after 2007, again due to its inaction (construction of Norochcholai was commenced in 2006 and Kerawalapitiya plant was commenced in 2007)”. “Therefore, the CEB’s non-implementation of plants in its LTGP, in the past, is the main reason for the power shortages envisaged in 2018 and beyond,” Mr Mathew maintains. “If the CEB boasts the best long-term plans, why (was) procurement of emergency power required in recent times?”
Of the most inflammatory allegation made by the CEBEU of regulatory staff working with the LNG and oil mafia, the Chairman says: “The requests for oil and LNG originated either from the LTGP prepared by the CEB or, on specific requests of CEB (for example: emergency power). Please note that the Commission has never amended the LTGP to include oil or LNG plants. It is the CEB which actually worked towards procuring power from expensive oil-fired power plants, by not implementing or deviating from the LTGPs.”