Sri Lanka power cut: Govt official blames poor oil quality, minister threatens legal action 

As Sri Lanka grapples with a major power outage, a senior government official has blamed the poor quality of crude oil imports for the shutdown of a power plant, resulting in extended power cuts.

Chief of the Public Utilities Commission—which oversees electric power distribution, water supply, and petroleum resources— Janaka Ratnayake claimed that high sulphur content in oil had massively impacted the electricity generation capacity of a power station.

"Sulphur content is too high in the furnace oil [fuel oil] which is not suitable for the current power plants and it's also not conforming with environmental standards," Ratnayake told the BBC.

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The accusation of the government official came a week after the Colombo government extended the power cuts from 80 minutes to 140 minutes because of a fall in power generating capacity.

Around 10 per cent of the country's electricity comes from diesel and fuel oil power plants, while the rest of the power is generated from hydro, renewable and coal-powered plants, Ratnayake said.

However, the charge was vehemently opposed by Sri Lanka’s Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara, who threatened to take legal action against Ratnayake.

Taking to Twitter, Wijesekara said that the power cut duration was increased because one of the hydro-power stations broke down and also due to insufficient funds to import diesel and fuel oil.

“CPC (Ceylon Petroleum Corporation)will respond legally to Chairman, PUCSL on the accusations on the quality of Crude Oil. CPC has adequate stocks of Diesel & Fuel Oil. Extended Power Cuts was requested by CEB due to breakdown at Lakshapana, insufficient funds at CEB for diesel & fuel oil & Hydro management,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineer's Union gas warned that daily power cuts might be extended to ten hours a day, if coal is not received byOctober 25

Currently, the coal stock is sufficient only till October 25, according to News 1.

(With inputs from agencies)

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