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Minister shoots down CEB’s proposal to buy emergency power
View(s):The Power and Energy Ministry has turned down the Ceylon Electricity Board’s proposals to go in for emergency power purchases and instead ordered the state utility to expedite power projects, including renewable energy plants.
Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that among the projects which had failed to be implemented were 780 renewable energy projects proposed by the Sustainable Energy Authority and several other major projects of the CEB.
He said that during the past five years, none of the solar or LNG projects had been implemented and explanation had been sought from officials about the delay in the implementation of these projects.
According to a report the minister has received, projects that could generate upto 2,800 MW of power had not been implemented.
“We have instructed the officials to prepare a cabinet proposal to launch the projects as soon as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times learns that the CEB had warned that there could be a power crisis in March next year and to overcome the crisis, the government should permit the purchase of emergency power.
In 2019 alone, some 80 renewable energy projects had been proposed to generate 480 Mw. Cabinet approval also had been given to the project, but they were not implemented eventually.