The country has just witnessed one of the worst blackouts in its recent history. Too many islandwide power failures at unusual intervals have even aroused suspicions of sabotage. Politicians are engaged in leveling allegations against one another making political capital out of the unfortunate happenings. Country as a whole suffered a huge economic loss while the people had to undergo many hardships.
At the root
of all this is the unresolved power crisis. For too long we depended on hydroelectricity
and when consumption increased power shortages and power cuts became the order
of the day. Major reforms in the power sector became impossible due to lack of
funding and opposition from various quarters. Finally the problem became too
acute compelling the government to urgently look for other sources of power and
coal power plant at Norochcholai was one such solution in a hurry.
The machines
at Norochcholai have stopped due to technical problems over thirty times up to
now. There are allegations of corruption and use of substandard components in
the commissioning of that plant and most of the blame in this regard has been
heaped on the previous government.
At the same
time, one should not forget that attempts by many governments to build such
power plants had to be shelved in the face of mounting opposition by
environmental groups and other politically motivated activist groups in the
past. Despite whatever its negatives, the addition of 300Mw of power from
Norochcholai averted major power cuts in the last few years.
Several
privately owned diesel power plants also entered the power sector making use of
the severe shortage of power. These are all temporary solutions, but there have
been allegations of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) purchasing power at high
prices. Thus, there seem to be an electricity mafia involving politicians, CEB
officials and the businessmen. At the centre of all this is the unresolved
power crisis in the country and the politics behind it.
The only way
proposed by economists, power sector experts and multi-lateral aid agencies
such as the World Bank and the ADB to resolve this issue is to restructure the
CEB which is an inefficient entity with colossal debts amounting to billions of
rupees which has already become a burden on the treasury. In order to increase
efficiency of the CEB and to resolve its debt issue, it has been proposed that
three of its main functions – generation, transmission and distribution, should
be separated.
Restructuring
will also require a huge amount of capital and it goes without saying that
private capital has to be infused into the system in some way. Like in many
state owned loss making institutions the very word ‘private capital’ is
anathema to CEB workers who have vehemently opposed these restructuring plans. All
major political parties are aware of the situation, but when in opposition they
also try to make political capital out of these issues by opposing the
restructuring moves.
If we are to
avert any future catastrophes in the power sector only way out is to seriously
look at these restructuring plans and implement whatever is suitable from the country’s
point of view with infusion of private sector capital where necessary. Country
is already seeing the positive results of such restructuring in the once
maligned telecom sector and there is no reason why same norms cannot be applied
to the power sector.
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