Bill to amend to Electricity Act to Parliament on Thursday (9); It will not abolish competition process, assures Minister

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera assured the Parliament that the amendments to the Sri Lanka Electricity Act will NOT abolish entirely the competitive bidding process for procurement of electricity.

He said the proposed amendments would only expedite the projects that are approved by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority.

The Minister dismissed all allegations made against the amendments that claimed the amendments were being moved to award large-scale solar, wind, and other kinds of power generation projects which are to be implemented in the future among interested business partners at their will without having any competitive bidding process.

Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said that even after the amendments are approved, it is the Ceylon Electricity Board that will have to decide on the tariff rate, and the price formula will have to be implemented to determine the rates.

The Minister said that over years many renewable energy investments were stalled due to legal obstacles to starting a project on the investors' property, and such obstacles will be eliminated via the proposed amendments.

He said the Bill to amend the Sri Lanka Electricity Act will definitely be produced to Parliament.

The Minister said that since 2013 this amendment was in the making, and a certain group in the Ceylon Electricity Board are opposed to these amendments, as they appear for the Diesel Power Plants and are against the implementation of renewable energy projects.

"Last week the CEB wanted me to increase the electricity tariff by 300% as the generation cost stood at Rs. 756 Billion, while the ministry only receives Rs. 250 Billion," he told the house adding the deficit of Rs. 500 Billion was due to the procurement of fuel for Diesel Power Plants and salaries for the CEB officers.

He said the salaries of the CEB officers are increased by 25% every three years, and questioned if the people are supposed to take on the burden of that cost as well.

He said if the CEB officers are not prepared to cut down their generation costs and pave the way for renewable energy projects, he will not take forward a request to increase any tariff rate.

The Energy Minister also listed the generation costs of Diesel power stations in the country:

Lakvijaya Power Plant: Rs. 41.80/-

Sojitz Kelanitissa Pvt Ltd: Rs. 84.80/-

Sapugaskanda B Power Plant: Rs. 61.56/-

Sapugaskanda A Power Plant: Rs. 66.42/-

Barge-mounted Power Plant: Rs. 62.14/-

Uthuru Janani Power Station: Rs. 65.52/-

West Coast Power Station: Rs. 68.20/-

Kelanithissa Combined Cycle Power Station: Rs. 98.40/-

Kelanithissa GT7 Power Station: Rs. 137.60/-

Kelanithissa Frame V-GT: Rs. 182.80/-

He then noted that it only costs around Rs. 16/- to Rs. 22/- to generate a unit of electricity via a renewable energy source.