
Electricity is a factor that enhances a country’s economy as well as development and the quality of people. The present government also says that electricity will always be available to all.
Ministry of Power
According to the Ministry of Power and Energy, by the end of 2019, domestic electrification in the country has reached 99.9%. Also, the demand for electricity is increasing by 4% – 5% annually.
At present there are 4472 mega watts in the country. One of the objectives of the Ministry of Power and Energy is to increase the capacity to 6900 MW by 2025. The Ceylon Electricity Board is also under this Ministry of Power and Energy.
By the end of 2019, the number of electricity consumers in the country will be 7,022,103. These groups are divided into domestic, religious places, public utilities, industries, government, hotels, wholesale / street lamps. 87% of this depends on household electricity consumption.
As the country’s economy grows, electricity bills also bring us warmth. This is sometimes unbearable for the electricity consumer. But today the electricity consumer has to bear the increase in electricity bills and maintain the CEB. All this is public money.
At present there are about 26,000 employees in the CEB. However, the CEB trade unions point out that there are between 6000-7000 trained officers and the same number of casual workers and the total staff will be close to 30,000. There are about 1,200 engineers. There are 48 unions.
Despite having so many employees in the CEB, we still do not get 100% successful electricity. Also, not all power plants in Sri Lanka are operational. The closest example of this is the Kelanitissa Combined Cycle Power Plant.
Kelanitissa Combined Cycle Power Plant Issue
Construction of the Kelanitissa Combined Cycle Power Plant commenced in the year 2000. The first phase was added to the national grid in January 2002 and the second phase in March 2003 with a total capacity of 165 MW.
The uniqueness of this plant is that it uses naphtha, which is removed by the Petroleum Corporation after refining diesel, as fuel. It costs between Rs. 18-20 per unit to generate electricity from this power plant. It is also an eco-friendly power plant.
The power plant generates an annual capacity of 1084 gigawatts or more than 108 billion units of electricity.
After 19 years, one of the machines at this plant became inoperable. That was in August. Accordingly, this power plant will be removed from the national grid with a plan to restart it in October 2019. The rotor was to be sent to India for repairs.
But the CEB officials have sent it to Dubai. Later it had to be brought to India from Dubai. As a result, the power plant, which was to be revived in two months, was delayed by a year and a half. This directly caused a loss of about 25 billion rupees.
Meanwhile, the relevant part was brought back to Sri Lanka after repairs. That too at a huge cost. After it was brought in, it had to be re-installed in the power plant without proper inspection, causing damage to the power plant’s main rotor and two bearings.
The power mafia
The Electricity Board General Services Union says that there is a mafia operating in the CEB. Its chairman Malaka Wickramasinghe says the so-called power mafia continues to operate in Sri Lanka. The power mafia is made up of corrupt politicians, crooked businessmen, opportunistic professionals and dishonest officials.
The naphtha produced by the Sapugaskanda power plant is sold today for free at Rs. 30. We bought it for 70 rupees. We made a unit from this power plant for about 18 rupees. Billions have been lost. Today we are talking a lot about the Central Bank bond, 11 billion. Sugar fraud is 15 billion. However, the loss incurred by the CEB due to this power plant is estimated at Rs. 25 billion. There has been a bigger loss than that.
The Mannar Wind Power Plant, which was inaugurated with an inaugural ceremony of 100 MW, we ask how many megawatts will be given to the system by the governing body? What was the action taken by the officials who installed the Kelanitissa Dual Cycle Power Plant without any supervision? There are other hidden issues regarding this and we hope to reveal them in the future.
There will be some rain in the next few months, but there is the question of how these will run if there is no rain in the future. I ask the government to immediately appoint a Presidential Commission to look into this mafia in the CEB, ”he added.
Unlimited salary
Another protracted crisis in the Ceylon Electricity Board is the wage disparity. The reason why the CEB General Employee has suffered is due to the fact that on January 8, 2015 the then General Manager of the CEB arbitrarily retired with the salary in accordance with the Illegal E Salary Level and after that 6 General Managers and 30 Additional General Managers retired with illegal salaries for the last six years. .
The General Employees Union has been able to give a historic victory to the CEB employees on 02.04.2019 after seven years of this salary scale issue which was oscillating under betrayals, betrayals, insults and insults. That is to increase the unjustly increased 1: 8 salary ratio back to 1: 6. But no authority at that time revised this salary scale. They set aside the court decision and implemented the pay scale in the usual way.
We suddenly had to talk about the CEB salary scale because of a step taken by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. It is to submit a proposal to the Cabinet approving that fraudulent salary scale.
Malaka Wickramasinghe, President of the Ceylon Electricity Board General Employees Union points out that the President does not have the power to approve a salary that has been invalidated by the courts.
New recruitments / promotions
Meanwhile, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Technical Engineers ‘Association and the Superintendents’ Association are on sick leave today (23) to protest against the new recruitments and other promotions that are being carried out by arbitrarily suppressing employees.
Due to the new methodology used by the government in these recruitments and promotions, those with professional qualifications within the CEB will not be able to be promoted and new people will be given jobs.
But the unions point out that it is more timely to give promotions to people with knowledge of electricity than to an unknown official who falls from the sky without even knowing the letter of electricity.
According to the 2019 Annual Performance Report of the Ministry of Power and Energy, the officials of this Ministry have received 27 training abroad. There are also 27 who have received local training, which is a one-day or two-day workshop. But 27 trainings have gone abroad and some of them are 5-8 days of training.
No matter how much local / foreign training they receive, the Ministry of Power and Energy still has no benefit and there is an inefficient administration.