Power Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday denied reports that his Cabinet paper to purchase emergency power to maintain an uninterrupted power supply in the country was deferred by the Cabinet of Ministers as reported in certain media.
The Minister said the proposal was given the green light by the Cabinet and they would do the needful to ensure that people will have an uninterrupted power supply during the festive season and after.
The Cabinet paper submitted by Power, Energy and Business Development Minister Karunanayake sought approval to purchase 100 MW of additional power for six months. Three private companies have been awarded contracts to supply power to six substations islandwide.
Aggreko International Project Ltd. will be pay Rs.30.20 per 1 KW unit to supply 24 MW to the Pallekele substation and 10 MW to the Galle substation during the contract period.
Altaaqa Alterrative Solution Global FZE of UAE will be paid Rs. 30.58 per 1 KW unit to supply 10 MW to the Mahiyanganaya Grid substation.
The same company will be paid Rs.30.63 per 1 KW to supply 8 MW to the Polonnaruwa substation.
V Power Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong will be paid Rs.28.43 per 1 KW to supply 24 MW to the Hambantota grid substation and Rs.28.70 per 1 KW to supply another 24 MW to the Horana grid substation.
The Cabinet of Ministers also approved a proposal by Minister Karunanayake to appoint a committee chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to look into ways and means to ensure a continuous power supply in the country.
The committee comprises Ministers of Finance, Power, Highways and Petroleum Resources Development.
However, the long term plan to resolve the power crisis in the country did not receive Cabinet nod, the Minister said. The long term plan involved purchasing 200MW of barge-mounted power from a Turkish company.
The CEB Engineers’ Union sources said the government had to purchase power at exorbitant rates due to its shortsighted actions disregarding CEB’s long term generation plan which did not receive due recognition by successive governments. The sources declined to quantify the loss but said it may exceed several million rupees.