Several opposition members of parliament (MPs) yesterday (7) accused the government of carrying out unannounced power cuts due to the looming energy crisis.
MPs Mujibur Rahman and D. V. Chanaka alleged that power cuts had taken place at several locations on Monday (6) due to low-quality coal, contradicting the government’s claim that no electricity cuts occurred.
Chanaka told parliament that he had warned in the House nearly two weeks ago that Sri Lanka would face power cuts within weeks due to substandard coal affecting electricity generation and that 45 feeders were switched off simultaneously without proper approval, resulting in power interruptions across several areas.
He further alleged that the government later described the situation as “power breakdowns” rather than power cuts but said the Ceylon Electricity Board system control centre report had categorized the incident as “manual load shedding” due to insufficient power generation.
He explained that “manual load shedding” effectively meant switching off electricity supply to selected areas, which he said amounted to power cuts.
Chanaka also claimed that around 150 megawatts of expected power generation were lost due to poor-quality coal, forcing authorities to manually disconnect feeders and that power cuts were carried out without approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), which he said was mandatory before implementing load shedding.
However, Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody responding to a question on the matter posed by Rahman yesterday morning in parliament said that breakdowns could not be considered as power cuts and that the government would inform the public if there were any scheduled power cuts.
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