Four and a half hour power cuts tomorrow

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has approved the request made by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for rotational load shedding tomorrow (Feb. 23), due to the shortage of fuel supplies. 

PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said that power cuts of 04 hours and 40 minutes will be imposed in the areas mentioned under groups A, B and C in the power interruption schedule (see schedule below).

Meanwhile power cuts of 04 hours and 30 minutes will be imposed in the other areas, he said. 

The PUCSL chairman said that the power cuts of 4 hours and 40 minutes will be imposed between 8.30 a.m. and 10.30 p.m. in groups A, B and C while it will be divided as 02 hours in the morning and 02 hours 40 minutes in the night. 

Meanwhile in the other groups, the power cuts of 04 hours and 30 minutes will be imposed between 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 p.m. while it will be split as 02 hours in the morning and 02 and a half hours in the night. 

The PUCSL said that around 4,000 metric tonnes of fuel is required daily to generate electricity in the country and that today (February 22) there had been a shortage of around 2,000 metric tonnes of fuel.

As a result, power plants with a total power generation capacity of 550MW were shut down, it said.

The electricity regulator added that tomorrow’s fuel requirement to generate electricity is 4,000 metric tonnes and that, however only 1,000 metric tonnes have been supplied. Accordingly, the fuel shortage for tomorrow is 3,000 metric tonnes, it said.

If there is such a shortage, 750MW of power will be withdrawn from the national grid, the PUCSL said.