King Sasanka – Sri Lankan Writer & Retired Aviation Professional.

 

The Great Solar Sabotage: Why Sri Lanka is Turning its Back on the Future Sri Lanka is a land defined by its abundance. Positioned in the heart of the tropics, we are blessed with near-perpetual sunshine and two powerful monsoons—the South-West and the North-East—that provide a free, inexhaustible source of energy. Yet, in a move that defies both economic logic and environmental sanity, there are proposals to penalize the very citizens who have invested their own capital into rooftop solar. The justification? The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is bleeding money. But to suggest that discouraging renewable energy is the cure for the CEB’s financial terminal illness is like suggesting a thirsty man stop drinking water to save on plumbing costs. The Elephant in the Room: Mismanagement The CEB’s losses are not the fault of the sun; they are the result of decades of systemic mismanagement, inflated procurement prices, and a bloated workforce. Reports of meter readers earning upwards ...

Ceylon Electricity Board ( CEB ) interrupts power for at least 8 hours (from 9am to 5pm) every month in this area citing the reason as regular maintenance. Despite this regular maintenance, we experience at least 2 to 3 power interruptions daily. The interruptions last from a few minutes to hours even. Experiencing them daily I could not fathom, what sort of maintenance work they have been carrying out every month. It is time that we voice loud to break this Mafia unit and insist on privatizing power supply.