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Power crisis: President delays urgent Bill

The Daily News learns that the Power Supply (Special Provisions) Bill approved by the Cabinet on February 25 and sent to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga as an urgent Bill in the national interest, is still with her without being sent to the Chief Justice as required.

The Supreme Court should inform the Speaker of Parliament within 24 hours whether such urgent bill is in conformity with the Constitution. If it conforms to the Constitution, the Bill is then urgently debated and approved by Parliament.

The Bill provides for the constitution of a Power Supply Committee with the objective of preparing a national plan to ensure an adequate power supply, to ensure adequate supplies of electrical, fuel and other varieties of power and to rationalize the utilization of electric power, fuel supply and other energy resources.

The Government ensures an uninterrupted electricity supply within four months of constituting the above Committee. The demand for electricity was 848MW in August 1994. Since there was a supply of 1359 MW at that time, there was an excess of 511 MW over the demand. In December 2001, there was a deficit of 200 MW as the supply was only 1200 MW while the demand was 1200 MW.

The power situation has aggravated since UNF assumed power due to several reasons. First is the increase in electricity consumption due to the resurgence of industry and tourism in consequence of cessation of hostilities and renewed confidence in the Government. The other factor was virtual drying of reservoirs.

Political analysts are perturbed as to why the President is delaying sending such an important bill to the Supreme Court when the country is facing an unprecedented power crisis.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, addressing the nation yesterday dwelt at length on the reasons for the power crisis and the measures the government would be taking to find both short-term and long-term solutions to it.

The text of the Prime Minister's address:

"The 2 1/2 hour power cut has caused great inconvenience to the people. It has affected their day to day life as well as that of business concerns. I therefore at the outset express my apologies to them on behalf of the government.

The people of this country expect an uninterrupted power supply. If the country is to develop there has to be an uninterrupted power supply. In order to ensure this we have put in motion certain plans. But before dwelling on it I wish to briefly speak on the present crisis.

There had been a power deficit after several years by last December. In 1994 the total power supply stood at 1359 mega watts. The demand was 848 mega watts. Therefore there was a surplus of 511 mega watts. However by December 2001 the total supply to the country had dwindled to 1200 mega watts while the demand had increased to 1400 mega watts. Therefore there was a scarcity of 200 mega watts by the beginning of this year.

The chief reason for this is the failure of the previous government to commission government approved hydro power projects in time. Examples are the Kukuleganga and Kotmale projects, together with the Kerawalapitiya Thermal power project.

The present Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya is making every endeavour to speed up these projects. In addition I wish to state that the financial position of the CEB is in a very unsatisfactory state.

It had a surplus of Rs. 5.7 billion in 1994 but by the end of 2001 the CEB was running debts to the tune of Rs. 16.5 billion. The chief reason for this is that during the last two years the CEB was paying Rs. 12.50 per unit for power purchased from foreign companies. Today we have been able to purchase a unit for Rs. 7.40.

However the government did not resort to recovering this loss from the people. Normally when there is a change in the cost of power generation it had been the practice of any government to adjust the billing accordingly. However we are not prepared to burden the people with the past sins of the CEB.

The CEB devised a plan to obtain 225 mega watts within a period of four months to meet the present 200 mega watts scarcity. In this respect priority was given to re-commission the 115 mega watts, Fiat gas turbine at the Sapugaskanda power station. But due to the still unsettled dispute with the Fiat Company it was difficult to meet the February deadline to recommission this gas turbine. There is a doubt whether this could be done in the future. Therefore in any future power assessments the CEB had been instructed to disregard this quantum of power from the Fiat Gas Turbine.

However instructions also went out not to extend the power cut beyond two and a half hours. But during the last two weeks two more questions cropped up regarding power supply.

When the 2 1/2 hour power cuts were enforced in December the maximum consumption was observed during the evenings. Due to the power cuts in the evenings most household chores were shifted to the early morning hours. As a result power consumption in the mornings rose. In addition as a result of the economic surge after February 20th power consumption saw a further increase. The increased power consumption coupled with the severe drought compelled the government to decide on the priority between provision of water for cultivation and drinking purposes and the use of water for power generation.

Since drinking water for Kandy is provided by Kotmale reservoir and Colombo by Laxapana and Castlereigh there was a necessity to curtail power generation from these reservoirs. Similarly there was a need to limit the power generation from the Samanalawewa, Polgolla and Randenigala reservoirs due to their water being used for cultivation purposes.

The demand for hydro power the limitations in hydro power generation coupled with the severe drought caused the crisis to reach a peak.

According to the present day demand we need to generate 21 Gega watt hours of electricity. The current two and half hour power cuts has helped save 3 gega watt hours.

Therefore what we need to generate today is 18 gega watts. Ten gega watt hours are being provided by generators. Therefore what is anticipated from hydro power is 8 gega watt hours. However as a result of the low levels in the reservoirs we are able to generate only 2 gega watt hours of hydro electric power. Therefore there is a shortfall of 6 gega watt hours. Through emergency generation we can obtain 3.5 gega watt hours while self generation would being in 1 gega watt hours. Since there is no way to obtain the balance 1.5 gega watt hours we were compelled to extend the power cut by another 2 1/2 hours. Therefore presently the country is experiencing a 5 hour power cut.

I wish to speak a few words on the steps we anticipate taking to end the power crisis. Firstly we need to take the immediate crisis. Therefore a power supply committee will be set up to obtain power on a short term basis and also for the implementation of a two year plan to meet the future power needs of the country.

The Committee will be chaired by the Secretary to the Treasury.

The Cabinet has already approved an urgent draft bill to vest all necessary legal powers with this committee. Already the committee is taking steps to purchase 300 mega watts of power. Foreign Companies who agree to the prices quoted by the Committee will be entrusted with providing this 300 mega watts. The selected firms will be requested to ship their generators and start supplying power as a matter of urgency.

Tenders will be called on Monday once the right company is selected, the Minister of Power and Energy would make a statement to the country.

In addition, I wish to disclose our plans running to October 2003. We have planned to obtain 90 mega watts of power on an urgent basis in February and March this year. Also we shall obtain an additional 20 mega watts from the Matara diesel power station. An additional 300 mega watts will be purchased on an urgent basis in May and June. While in June another 100 mega watts would be obtained from the Kelanitissa combined cycle power plant. There will be another 54 mega watts in August and by May 2003 we expect to add another 54 mega watts to the National Grid.

Similarly we aim to obtain 20 mega watts from the diesel power plant in Anuradhapura in June 2003. By June we will be obtaining another 20 mega watts from the "Peelstick Power plant in Sapugaskanda; Seventy mega watts from the Kukuleganga project, by October 2003 and another 200 mega watts will be purchased on a medium term basis in October 2003. The progress of these projects will be made known to the people periodically by the Minister while also informing them of all future plans.

Especially with the anticipated take off in the economy and end to the war there is bound to be an enhanced demand for power. So far we mainly depended on hydro power. We cannot proceed forward by depending on hydro power alone.

Therefore we have decided to set up coal power and thermal power plants.

Since coal power generation would entail several years while such plants are being set up. We plan to set up thermal power plants on a short term basis to meet the demand of the heightened economic activity.

The monopoly enjoyed by the CEB has led to its ignoring the requirements of consumers in some instances. The solution to this is to encourage competition with the private sector. Except for the upper Kotmale project we expect to engage the private sector in all other power generation projects, especially since the CEB is not in a financial position to undertake giant projects.

In addition we are going to set up a power pool, to draw from during an emergency. In this way the country will be provided with an uninterrupted power supply at all seasons.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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