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"If you want to be in the dark please vote for the People's Alliance (PA). If you want to lose your jobs as industries are forced to close without electricity, vote for the PA," UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said at the UNP inaugural election rally on 29 October in Kandy.

It is true that country's industrial sector was affected due to the power cuts and people had to be in darkness for many hours. Why ? Because the consumption of electricity increased to 58 per cent last year mainly due to rural electrification and 1880 new industries worth Rs.860 billion got off the ground.

The unexpected drought, which continued for many months, reduced hydro electricity generation. The increased consumption of electricity as a result of increasing rural electrification and industrialisation led the CEB to restrict the consumption of electricity in the recent past.

A survey conducted by the Ceylon Electricity Board in 1998 revealed that only 36 per cent of the rural houses have electricity compared to 95 per cent of the urban areas.

Rural electrification was neglected by previous UNP Governments as it cost millions of rupees. Though it is very costly the PA Government took the initiative to provide electricity despite many hurdles since 1994 spending millions of rupees. This delivered indirect benefits to society such as new factories, self employment projects, better standards of living due to the operation of more electrical items, etc.

If the Government did not provide electricity to rural houses and did not want to attract investments, power cuts would not have been needed. But the people had to face power cuts in the recent past due to the short sighted policies of previous UNP Governments.

Power cuts are nothing new in countries dependent on hydro power. Power cuts are quite frequent in New Zealand and Brazil since they too are dependant on hydro power.

The UNP Government imposed 404 days of power cuts from 1980 to 1994. The PA Government imposed power cuts only for 131 days from 2nd July this year.

An analysis of electricity generation during the seven years before 1994 (1987 to 1994) clearly indicates that the UNP Government had not taken any effort to increase electricity generation despite knowing that many industries and rural electrification projects would start in the future.

In 1987 the installed capacity was 1138.25 MW. Hydro electricity accounted for 868.25 MW and thermal, 270 MW. But during 1987 to 1994 thermal generation was increased by only 2.20 MW. The absence of far-sighted policies in the then UNP Government is the main reason for the present power crisis.

If the previous UNP Government laid a foundation for increasing the generation of thermal power the present power cuts would not have arisen. During the last seven years thermal power generation was increased by 418 MW which is a growth of 154 per cent to 690 MW to date from 272 MW in 1994. This is a historic achievement in the power sector. The total installed capacity had increased to 1827 MW to date from 1409 MW in 1994. Last week, the total power generation capacity increased by another 110 mega watts with the commissioning of the first phase of a state-of-the-art gas/steam power plant at Kelanitissa. With the completion of the entire Combined Cycle Power Plant project in Kelanitissa by mid-August next year, the country's power generation is to be upgraded at least by 10 per cent adding 55 more MW to the national grid.

Five more such projects are online, targeting 1155 more mega watts. When the Kelanitissa project is completed, it will deliver 1084 GWH annually to the national grid.

This project will meet the annual 10 per cent increase in the demand.

The Government plans to bring the ratio between hydro and thermal power generation up to 50:50 which is now 60:40.

The Japanese Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) funded the project for the Ceylon Electricity Board to bear the cost of the Kelanitissa project, which amounts to Rs.10.6 billion. The Japanese soft loan was Rs.9.2 billion.

The Government had spent Rs.57 billion while spending billions on the war to improve electricity generation during the last seven years.

The Government sought private sector participation in 1996 with the commissioning of the Lakdhanavi Power Plant at Sapugaskanda. A 60 MW barge mounted power plant, a novel feature to Sri Lanka, was introduced in 1999.

The Government has planed five new projects which are scheduled to get off the ground soon. With the existing power projects and these five projects electricity can be provided to 80 per cent of the population. Those projects are: Kukuleganga (70 MW), Wind Power in Hambantota (60 MW), Kelanitissa combined cycle (160 and 163 MW), diesel power plant (20 MW), Kotmale (840 MW), Broadland and natural gas power plants.

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