CEB struggling with monsoon failure

• 12 years ago (2011-09-09)
• David Flin

North America 998 Renewables 752

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Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which has been badly hit by a failure of the island’s main monsoon, is predicting losses in 2011 of $54 million, due to the cost of extra thermal generation. CEB said that 85 percent of its current output is generated from coal and oil. CEB is expecting “inter-monsoonal” rains later this month to improve both water and cash inflows.

CEB has a capacity of about 1200 GWh of hydro storage, which currently stands at 300 GWh. It is receiving about 5-6 GWh of inflows a day which allows it to maintain the 300 GWh level at current usage.

Sri Lanka’s North East monsoon starts in November. Before that, there is an “inter-monsoon” period when the South West monsoon winds ceases, which also brings some inflows.

Although CEB is managing to keep the grid active, the cost of fuel for thermal generation is taking its toll on finances.