Desperate times

Kussi Amma Sera, after the latest bout of unscheduled power cuts on Tuesday, was furiously searching for candles in the house. “Sir, apita thava iti-pandam oney (Sir, we need more candles),” she shouted.

She was in a similar mood when engaged in conversation with her two friends under the margoso tree on Thursday morning. “Mey salasum karapu nethi viduli kappaduwa hinda hariyata kalakirenawa (These unscheduled power cuts are very frustrating),” she said, angrily.

“Mama uyana kota thama light giye. Peyakata passe avith apahu giya (I was cooking when the lights went. It came an hour later then went off again),” noted Serapina.

“Mama TV eke rasavath tele-natyayak balanakota thama eka wune. Aei aanduwata monawath hariyata karanna beri me davas wala, minisunva nithi patha apahasuthavayata path karanne nethuwa (I was watching an interesting teledrama when this happened. Why can’t the government do something right these days instead of regularly inconveniencing the people),” asked Mabel Rasthiyadu.

My laptop battery doesn’t work properly and when the lights went off on Tuesday night, an entire story that I was typing vanished with the power cut. Extremely frustrating indeed!

Hoping that there won’t be a repeat on Thursday morning, I was preparing to write my column when the phone rang. It was Andare, the small-time exporter of garments, on the line.

“We are getting battered, left and right with these power cuts, dollar shortage and restrictions on import of raw materials for our products,” he said.

“But I thought exporters can use their dollar earnings to import raw material,” I said. “That is how it should be, but we are still facing problems,” he said, adding that the unscheduled power cuts and potential power cuts in the future are hitting the industry badly.

“What about purchasing your own generator,” I asked. “Even if we have generators, what happens if there is a shortage of diesel according to a warning by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC)?” he said.

Many other exporters too viewed the shortage of diesel as a problem in running private generators.

Last week, export manufacturers at the free trade zone, in a letter, urged Power and Energy Minister Gamini Lokuge not to proceed, as planned to enforce 2-hour power cuts as they would adversely impact production and meeting shipment schedules.

“This power outage is seemingly a very tedious task to cope with for companies which are unable to invest on power generators,” the letter said, adding that not all companies were able to afford using “standby generators” and those who could would have their costs of production increase, thereby making them uncompetitive in the export markets.

Sri Lanka is perhaps facing its worst ever power crisis coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, when there was a shortage of power during a severe drought when hydropower turbines could not be worked, the CEB relied on thermal power, a luxury the power utility cannot rely on these days due to a shortage of dollars to purchase fuel.

The CPC which is entrusted with providing Sri Lanka’s entire fuel requirements – be it for transportation, industry or power generation – is short of foreign cash to purchase fuel from overseas suppliers. In a rare admission, it has asked the CEB to find its own dollars to pay for power purchases! What a state of affairs. Using the same yardstick, the CPC might ask motorists to pay in dollars at the fuel station!

In this unsteady power sector, it’s a case of ‘always breakdown’ since during several days this week, the power was cut, sometimes in short bursts and sometimes for a longer period. How can you run industry, services and the economy with such painful power cuts which affect productivity and meeting targets?

According to official sources, the CPC is just managing its supply of fuel to run the country’s thermal power plants and plans to adopt a controlled system of fuel to the CEB with the intention of saving existing stocks until there is foreign exchange for oil imports. Under this plan, the CPC is compelled to supply fuel in parcels sufficient for a day or three days to the CEB.

Mixed messages from the two ministers-in-charge of energy and power, the CEB General Manager and the powerful CEB Engineers’ Union on the power crisis have left the public more confused than ever before: it’s a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing!

At a meeting last week of the responsible ministers, power officials and the President, it was decided that there won’t be any power cuts until end March (the conduct of the Advanced Level examination in February-March being one of the reasons). However, that promise – like the Sinhala movie of yesteryear Kadawunu Poronduwa (The Broken Promise) – was broken almost immediately with unscheduled power cuts. The Central Bank at the meeting with the President had also assured a sufficient supply of foreign exchange to the CPC to purchase fuel to meet the country’s requirements.

It must be stressed that the ministers-in-charge of power and energy – particularly during this power crisis, need to be able to solve issues – in this case seeking enough dollars from the Central Bank – among themselves instead of running to the President for every solution. If the President was able to direct the Central Bank to release foreign exchange for fuel purchases, why didn’t the banking regulator in the first instance respond to the CPC’s and CEB’s request for foreign exchange?

As of Wednesday, the total daily energy requirement was 46.64 GWh, according to the CEB. Of this, fossil fuel represented 70 per cent of the energy generated and the balance from renewable energy.

The government has ambitious plans of reversing this by 2030 to 70 per cent renewable energy and 30 per cent fossil fuel but with all kinds of issues in approving renewable energy projects, this target is unlikely to be met.

According to the CEB’s annual report for 2019, total energy generation for the year was 16,556 GWh, while NonConventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) which is represented by mini hydro, wind, solar, dendro, biomass and rooftop solar accounted for a mere 1,761 GWh.

As I sipped my second mug of tea and finished the column, the thought for the day was; would Sri Lanka ever be able to have a disciplined and uninterrupted power supply which is essential for the people, the economy and industry.