Q: How has the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) progressed over the last 50 years?

A: Established in November 1969, CEB has marked many milestones in its 50-year journey of supplying electricity to the nation. This includes 100 percent national electrification, an around-the-clock supply of power, an electricity generation capacity of 4,085 MW, increased renewable energy absorption (from 30% to 50%), a reduction of technical losses to 8.45 percent and improved reliability.

Moreover, CEB’s customer base is nearing 6.9 million – and its customer care has improved across the island with 62 area offices, 221 customer service centres, 11 call centres, doorstep services and the ‘CEB Care’ app.

Over the years, CEB developed many hydropower plants and a few more projects are in the pipeline. Renewable energy serves as a great asset to the nation as it substantially reduces carbon emissions.

Q: What challenges does CEB face in the present socioeconomic context?

A: With the improvement in socioeconomic conditions in the country, the level of service expected by CEB customers has been increasing. In addition, with the recent achievement of 100 percent electrification, the number of customers served has increased by a large number. Therefore, providing an uninterrupted supply of power to our growing customer base has become a great challenge.

Currently, CEB is faced with the critical challenge of meeting the demand for electricity, primarily as a result of not implementing planned power plants. We require government support to expedite the implementation of major power plants in the pipeline in forms such as securing land and funding, and providing an enabling policy environment.

Not implementing these planned power plants has forced the Ceylon Electricity Board to procure expensive short-term power plants (mainly diesel), which has led to a considerable increase in the cost of production. The outcome is that our unit cost of production increased to almost Rs. 23 whereas the unit selling price remains at 16 rupees. This has had adverse financial impacts on CEB and the national economy.

The Government of Sri Lanka regulates the electricity sector through the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), which was established by the PUCSL Act No. 35 of 2002. PUCSL is empowered to intervene in the sector as the economic, technical and safety regulator.

CEB implemented several policy guidelines to promote the use of renewable energy – namely mini-hydro, wind, solar and biomass – in line with the national energy policy framework. Upon initiation,
we supported the renewable energy sector by providing incentives and subsidies with government enablers.

However, while the government utilised CEB as a vehicle to pass on benefits to the public in line with its policies, the state owned enterprise has not been provided with adequate cost reflective tariffs to sustain its business and recover subsidy components in line with economic regulations.

As the renewable energy sector achieved remarkable milestones such as establishing 250 power plants that added a cumulative capacity of 650 MW to the CEB grid, the government decided to transform procurements from a feed-in tariff system to a competitive bidding process.

Furthermore, regionally competitive and affordable electricity tariffs are necessary to create an attractive environment for foreign investors.


Q: In your view, what opportunities does the local energy sector offer?

A: Sri Lanka has great potential to increase its capacity by harnessing wind and solar energy, in line with the national energy policy.

Wind energy is an intermittent source of energy and creates certain instabilities in the system. To address this technical issue, CEB embraced wind farming that can be dispatched as needed and is in the final phase of establishing the 100 MW Mannar Island Wind Farm, which is expected to be completed by December.

Increased solar power generation could be utilised for peak time loads between 9 a.m. and
4 p.m. when corporates and the services sector are most active. However, to mitigate the variations and fluctuations in solar energy output due to cloud cover, the size of solar plants must be restricted.

Moreover, CEB has connected solar power stations to add nearly 260 MW to its grid. Currently, we’re working to procure an additional 150 MW of solar power through a competitive bidding process, presenting opportunities for the SME sector.

Q: How can solar power plants be developed further in Sri Lanka?

A: By separating current and upcoming solar projects into smaller capacities and scattering them across the country, CEB envisages minimising the technical issues that act as obstacles to the integration of solar power.

With an abundance of scrubland, small-scale solar power projects can be pursued across the nation. Additionally, CEB promotes the use of rooftop solar power generation, which saves on land requirements, and helps preserve agricultural livelihoods and wildlife habitats.