Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera announced that the Cabinet of Ministers approved the electricity sector reforms bill during its meeting recently
The Cabinet approval entails the green light to Gazette the amended version of the new electricity sector bill and to subsequently present it to Parliament for further consideration and approval.
“The bill will be gazetted this week and is scheduled to be presented to Parliament in the last week of April. Upon its presentation, the public will have a two-week window to scrutinise and potentially challenge the bill,” he noted via ‘X’.
The proposed electricity sector reforms bill marks a pivotal step in the Government’s efforts to modernise and streamline the electricity sector, aiming to enhance efficiency, reliability, and sustainability while fostering competition and innovation.
The Sri Lankan Government intends to restructure the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), instead of running all the related entities under one institution and will unbundle all related institutions separately, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera disclosed.
Currently loss making Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is now in for systematic restructuring process by unbundling it into eight separate corporate entities for power generation, transmission, and distribution, a recent board paper on administration specified.
The board paper clearly indicated that it plans to reduce massive losses of the CEB by transforming it into efficient profit making institution by setting up these entities under eight new general managers.
These entities will undertake functions of the CEB relating to hydro electricity, thermal electricity, coal power and non renewable power generation, distribution, and other activities of CEB as well as Lanka Electricity Company (LECO).
A new Electricity Reforms Bill have been drafted and presented in Parliament soon to regularise the restructuring process, a senior official of the Ministry of Power said
“Under the CEB restructuring process, the management structure of the CEB will be undergoing reforms and this would also enable renewable energy generation to be promoted in the country with the support of government and private and public partnerships.” he said.
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has alaready comapleted all background studies and data gathering work related to its restructuring programme,
But it must wait until the proposed Electricity Sector Reforms Bill is passed in the Parliament for any of the related decisions to become material fact, a hig official of the CEB said. .
In the midst of the economic crisis that emerged in the country due to following wrong financial policies and the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government focused on placing various Government and semi-Government institutions including the CEB under restructuring programmes.
CEB General Manager, engineer, Dr. Narendra de Silva said that various conceptual level processes are currently underway as part of the restructuring programme. “The restructuring process is currently underway. We have appointed an internal committee and it is working closely with the Restructuring Office established by the Government. All background studies have been done and the required data has been collected,” he said
