Sri Lanka is lurching towards serious power shortages next year–entailing scheduled power cuts, The Sunday Times Newspaper reported.
According to the Sunday Times, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) this week has alerted the Government on the “critical fuel situation for thermal power generation” has been exacerbated by the shortage of dollars to import furnace oil.
On Monday, the CEB has written a note to its Board warning that there is a critical fuel situation for thermal power generation owing to restricted furnace oil availability.
“At present, available fuel stocks and confirmed refinery production will be sufficient for CEB and WCPP operation only till mid-January 2022.” The only option now was to import furnace oil, The board paper said.
Efforts to procure fuel stocks have failed with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) asking the CEB to open its own letters of credit (LCs) to import the fuel as it, too, was running out of dollars, The Sunday Times Newspaper reported added.