Private power producers complain of delayed payments
View(s):While private power producers have been largely unaffected by the COVID-19 lockdown as their units are operating, the biggest problem they face is the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) delaying payments.
All mini hydros, wind and solar power units are connected to the national grid and the CEB pays for this private power generation.
“So far we have received only the December payments and nothing after that,” said one industry source.
LVL Energy Fund Ltd, in a statement posted on the Colombo Stock Exchange website, said that while no power plant ceased operation due to COVID-19, payments from the CEB have been delayed. “With difficulty we were able to collect payment in February and March for electricity supplied in October 2019. In April we received 50 per cent of the payment for November 2019 sales. Under normal circumstances we receive payment within two months but now it is getting extended beyond four months causing cash-flow problems for all project companies,” it said.
In other developments, industry officials said that smaller biogas plants had encountered problems in the supply of fuelwood as there was a kind of a fear psychosis among villagers against outsiders coming into their areas owing to COVID-19.
Due to the drop in current demand with little manufacturing and production, the average cost of power to the CEB should also drop. Nearly 80 per cent of the CEB power generation comes from thermal power – oil and coal- while the balance is made up of hydro and other renewables.