Sri Lanka cuts hydropower generation to 15% as drought slashes output

Ceylon Electricity Board cited the failure to build new power plants for power cuts.

Sri Lanka’s state-run power firm has imposed daily power cuts for the first time in more than two years as a drought has slashed hydropower output, highlighting the government’s failure to build new power plants, according to a report from Reuters.

The drought was said to have cut the hydropower generation in half to 15% of the nation’s total electricity production as the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) seeks to save water for household and irrigation requirements, the firm said.

“That has resulted in a four-hour rolling power cut on weekdays, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 10 p.m., that began without notice on Friday and was then announced on a scheduled basis for Monday. The four-hour daily cuts hit different places at different times,” the report noted.

The power cuts are also said to come after delays in power plant projects.

In 2016, the government cancelled a 500MW coal power plant through a joint venture between CEB and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation in the eastern port district of Trincomalee, citing environmental pollution. The coal power plant was originally due to start producing in late-2019.

Read the full report here.

Photo by Rehman Abubakr, CC BY-SA 4.0