Category: Power

Apr 20, 2013 (LBO) – Ministers in Sri Lanka paid only 2,000 rupees for power a month regardless of the volume of use, former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera told reporters in a shock revelation.“I am aware of the situation, as I myself paid only 2000 rupees when I was a minister,” he was quoted as […]

Apr 19, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said the latest hike will see power costs going up by 20 to 30 percent and the state power utility to should follow the directions of the regulator to increase its transparency.The Chamber said the Public Utilities Commission had not made adjustments to tariffs […]

Apr 18, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party has slammed a power tariff hike for very low users and the questioned the independence of the regulator, after a proposal of the state power monopoly was approved almost unchanged.But the regulator had earlier dis-allowed 40 billion rupees from proposed expenses of state-run […]

Apr 18, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s power regulator has set eight conditions for cost transparency at state-run Ceylon Electricity Board, which it said came from consumer suggestions at a public hearing.Other analysts have also questioned the efficiency of several thermal plants and called for PPA’s to be made public. CEB has to initiate power […]

Apr 17, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s power regulator has approved a tariff request by state-run Ceylon Electricity Board denying a request to reduce tariffs of large domestic users, after earlier cutting of 40 billion rupees in estimated costs.High user domestic tariffs at around 44 rupees a unit with the fuel surcharge are more than […]

Apr 16, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should stop raising power tariffs suddenly by large percentages after driving the economy to crisis, but use an already established methodology to revise prices in an orderly way, consumers said.“These ad hoc tariff increases are bad of the industry,” Srilal Miththapala, representing hotels at a public hearing on […]

Apr 15, 2013 (LBO) – Despite decades of propaganda by elected rulers about ‘the government bearing the burden’ some citizens are seeing through the subsidy deception, comments by electricity consumers at a public hearing on a tariff hike showed.He said two state banks were also in trouble because of heavy lending to fund subsidies. Now […]

Apr 10, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Electricity Board should have competitive bidding for all new plants, electricity users said at a public hearing, as an expensive plant that was ‘negotiated’ came under repeated fire from irate customers. Some diesel plants running reciprocating engines are selling power at a little over 20 rupees […]

Apr 07, 2013 (LBO) – Off-grid power users, who generate their own electricity in villages too remote for the national grid to reach, put rent-seeking big business and grid-connected householders to shame at a public hearing on a proposed tariff hike. Speaker after speaker, representing big business low user domestic customers and the renewable energy […]

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Apr 05, 2013 (LBO) – The calculation of subsidies to customer categories by Sri Lanka’s power regulator was flawed, as the cost of supply to bulk users was lower than retail and domestic customers who were at the tail end of the grid, a top energy expert has said. “I submit to the commission that […]

Apr 04, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should push harder on cutting peak power demand as ‘average’ costs are meaningless and trimming the most expensive 5.0 percent of energy has the potential to eliminate losses at Ceylon Electricity Board, a think tank has said.About 17 percent of the generation costs of state-run Ceylon Electricity Board […]