Investor protection vital :

Power supply to be increased by 10 percent in 2016

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The electricity supply in the country will be increased by ten percent by 2016 and it will take another ten years to provide electricity to every household in the country, said Director General Public Utilities Commission Sri Lanka Prof. Ranjit Perera.

He was speaking on “Regulators Role in implementing Energy Sector Reforms” at the annual sessions of the Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association at the Taj Samudra Hotel recently.

Perera said that so far 83 percent of the total households have been given electricity but the remaining 17 percent who do not have access to electricity includes four million households. It is a huge task and one of the main problems is that in Sri Lanka towns are not planned like in other countries.

As such the cost of infrastructure is very high and it is very time consuming too However, connecting the North and South and other SAARC countries, supplying affordable electricity for all, achieving renewable targets and introducing nuclear plants are new challenges that the energy sector reforms and regulators will have to face in the future, Perera said.

He said that investor protection in this field is vital as utilities are heavily capital intensive and have long life assets, investments are large and immobile with long pay back periods, investors needs clear rules of the game, distrust of the investors reduces credibility of the country and increases the cost of capital and finally the cost of the product.

Consumer protection is also important because the consumer is compelled to buy electricity from a monopoly, and the consumer needs a quality service at an acceptable price.

They should feel that they are equal partners of dealings with this utility and they expect a reliable mechanism to address their grievances, he said.