Janaka Ratnayake, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, has warned that if coal is not imported into Sri Lanka as soon as possible, there will be a 10-12 hour power cut by the last week of October.
“Currently, we have about 250,000 metric tons of coal reserves. That’s about 50 days of reserves. If we do not import coal today and tomorrow, we will have to disable all the power generators in Norochchole after October 28. The main reason for that is that some party has gone to court saying that fundamental rights were violated in awarding the coal to the company called Black Sands Commodities, which submitted the lowest bid during the call for tenders. Also, a third party not involved in this tender is taking big action to disrupt the coal procurement process and get the coal order. By the last week of October, when we run out of coal, if we have to shut down these three generators without coal, we will have to go through a power cut of at least 10-12 hours. The reason for that is that 35%-40% of our electricity is produced from coal.
Janaka Ratnayake said this while addressing a press conference held yesterday (22).
