Four power plants have been shut down intermittently over 3 months due to the fuel shortage

Sri Lankans are now experiencing a severe socio-economic crisis which has resulted in diminishing forex reserves, staggering inflation, rising amount of debt, and currency depreciation leading to an economic collapse. If you closely observe the crisis-situation in Sri Lanka , it is evident that these issues have negatively impacted the day-to-day lifestyle of the public and the businesses of the country as well.

The situation has gotten worse as the national electricity provider became unable to meet the island-wide fuel demand due to the lack of sufficient foreign reserves to clear the fuel stocks that are currently being imported into the country. At the same time, due to the shortage of fuel, both transport and energy sectors have come to a standstill leaving the public and private sectors to collapse.

This situation has had a severe impact on the power generation of the country and with the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) carries out island-wide load shedding on a daily basis.

Accordingly, a Right to Information (RTI) application was submitted to the CEB, inquiring on the supply of fuel for thermal power plants in the country and the daily fuel requirement of each of these power plants. 

According to their response, the daily fuel requirement of thermal power plants in the country is as follows.

* HFO – A residual fuel produced by the distillation of crude oil.

* Naphtha – A flammable liquid formed by the distillation of petroleum

As it was reported that some power plants in the country have become dysfunctional from time to time due to the lack of sufficient fuel, we inquired about it through the relevant information application. Accordingly, the details of the power plants that became dysfunctional during the period from 01.01.2022 to 10.10.2022 are as follows:

Battala Power Plant (Port Premises)

West Coast Power (Yugadanavi)

Sapugaskanda ‘A’

Sapugaskanda ‘B’

Meanwhile, we also inquired about the daily power shortage caused by the shortage of fuel. (From 01.01.2022 to 04.03.2022)

In addition, the quantities of fuel  issued by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to the power plants in the country from 01.01.2022 to 04.03.2022 are as follows.