Ceylon Electricity Board

Ceylon Electricity Board - CEB
Native name
ලංකා විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලය - ලංවිම (இலங்கை மின்சார சபை - இமிச)
Company typeGovernment-owned corporation
Industry
Founded6 June 1969 (1969-06-06)
Defunct9 March 2026 (2026-03-09)
FateRestructured
Headquarters50, Sir Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka
ParentMinistry of Power
Subsidiaries
Websitewww.ceb.lk

The Ceylon Electricity Board - CEB (Sinhala: ලංකා විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලය - ලංවිම, romanized: Lankā Vidulibala Mandalaya - Lanwima; Tamil: இலங்கை மின்சார சபை - இமிச), was the largest electricity company in Sri Lanka. With a market share of nearly 100%, it controlled all major functions of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retailing in Sri Lanka. It was one of the only two on-grid electricity companies in the country; the other being Lanka Electricity Company (LECO). The company earned approximately Rs 204.7 billion in 2014, with a total of nearly 5.42 million consumer accounts.

It was a government-owned and controlled utility of Sri Lanka that took care of the general energy facilities of the island. The Ministry of Power and Energy was the responsible ministry above the CEB. Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), established by the CEB Act No. 17 of 1969, was under the legal obligation to develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical system of electricity supply in accordance with any licenses issued.

The Ceylon Electricity Board was officially dissolved with effect from 9 March 2026 as per the Sri Lanka Electricity Act, No. 36 of 2024 and replaced by six state-owned companies (SOE) under the government's CEB restructuring programme.[1][2][3]

Subsidiaries

CEB has following subsidiaries[4]

  • Lanka Electricity Company
  • LTL Holdings (Pvt) Ltd
  • Lanka Coal Company Ltd
  • Sri Lanka Energies (Pvt) Ltd (100% subsidiary of CEB)
  • Trincomalee Power Company Limited (Joint Venture)

Electricity Generation

Hydro power

Electricity generation by CEB is primarily done by hydropower. Hydropower is the oldest and most dependent source of electricity generation, taking a share of nearly 42% of the total available grid capacity in December 2014, and 37% of the power generated in 2014.[5] Hydropower generation facilities have been constantly under development since the introduction of the national grid but are currently declining due to the exhaustion of the resource.

In 2014, then Media Spokesperson at the CEB, Senajith Dassanayake said the generation of hydropower has dropped to 37%; as a result, 60 percent of the electricity needs have to be fulfilled by thermal energy.[6]

Thermal Power

The Norocholai Coal Power Station, the only coal-fired power station in the country is owned by CEB; it was commissioned in late-2011 and finished in 2014, under loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. It added further 300 megawatts of electrical capacity to the grid.[7] The Sampur Coal Power Station, is currently under consideration in Trincomalee.[8]

Coal Power Development

In 2011, the Ceylon Electricity Board opened a new coal power plant named Puttalam Lakvijaya. On 13 February 2011 it was synchronized with the system.[9]

On 17 September 2014, US$1.35 billion coal-fired Norochcholai Power Station was commissioned by the Chinese President Xi Jinping on his visit to Sri Lanka. The Export-Import Bank of China provided a US$450 million loan for the first 300-megawatt unit at the power plant.[10] The power plant was officially commenced on 16 September 2014.[11]

Wind Power Development

CEB launched Sri Lanka's largest wind farm Thambapavani added to the national grid. The project started in 2014. Power station generate more than 100 MW.[12]

Electricity generation by source[13]
  1. Coal 43.18 (42.5%)
  2. Oil 8.47 (8.33%)
  3. Hydropower 47.32 (46.5%)
  4. Wind 2.7 (2.66%)

Controversies

Blackouts and shutdowns

  • In October 2010, during a test run, a fire broke out in the chimney due to clogging. Splits in the cooling system piping triggered a shutdown of the power plant. The Ceylon Electricity Board decided to institute blackouts for households and industries for three hours a day until the fault was fully repaired.[10]
  • In December 2013, more leaks were discovered in the cooling system, and the CEB decided that the plant was too dangerous to operate at the moment. The CEB requested assistance from CMEC, and the company said that it would take about six weeks to fix the faults. After negotiations, the plant was repaired by CMEC and brought back online. A day later it failed once more and was shut down again for six more days.
  • In 2014, then Minister of Power and Energy, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, revealed that the Norochcholai power plant had been offline for 271 days out of the 1086 days since it had been operating.[10]
  • On 25 February 2016, the entire country of Sri Lanka experienced a 3-hour blackout due to a bolt of lightning striking the national power grid.[14]
  • On 13 March 2016, Sri Lanka experienced another 7-hour island-wide blackout due to a damaged transformer in the 220 kV substation at Biyagama. It is considered to be the worst nationwide power outage in 20 years. Ex-prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a five-member committee to investigate the blackout. Due to initial suspicions of sabotage, Ex-president Maithripala Sirisena deployed troops to guard electrical installations until the investigation was completed. The CEB also reported that the outage caused Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant to fail, resulting in a loss of 900 Mega Watts to the National Grid.[15][16] On March 23, 2016, Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya notified parliament that the reason for the power outage was a lack of regular maintenance of power installations.[17] The engineer in charge of the Biyagama Substation had previously reported that a key transformer needed maintenance; however, no repairs were made.[18]

2019 electricity crisis

Main article: 2019 Sri Lanka electricity crisis
  • In March 2019, the CEB decided to impose four-hour rolling power cut on a scheduled basis throughout Sri Lanka after the national grid capacity failed to meet the increased demand for power due to dry climate, and due to limited power generation.[19][20]

Losses

Ceylon Electricity Board has lost 25.5 billion rupees in 2011, and run up debts of 121 billion rupees with a petroleum distributor and independent power producers.[21]

In 2012, the CEB lost 61.2 billion rupees and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation which supplied fuel below cost 89.7 billion rupees. To cover up the loss, the CEB increased power tariffs on a large scale. The CEB expected to get revenues of 223 billion rupees—or 45 billion rupees more than the earlier tariff—from the price hike, but subsequently lost 33 billion rupees in 2013 on total expenses of 256 billion rupees.[22]

On 16 September 2014, after officially opening a completed $1.35 billion Chinese-financed 900 MW coal power plant project, Sri Lankan President at the time, Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed the nation saying that the electricity bills of the people will be reduced by 25%.[11] The CEB stated that it will take about two weeks to come up with a process of creating electricity bills to reflect the reduction in prices.[23]

Employee Tax

The CEB has been accused of Tax fraud by the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), which has claimed that CEB has not deducted PAYE from its engineers and senior staff since 2010 amounting to Rs. 3465 million. CaFFE has claimed that this amount has been recovered from the consumer instead.[24]

Restructuring

In August 2022, a restructuring committee was appointed as per the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers to submit proposals to restructure the CEB within a month. Committee members consisted of former and current administrative officers of the Sri Lankan Government Service.[25]

The Sri Lanka Electricity Act, No. 36 of 2024 for restructuring of the CEB was passed in the Parliament on 17 September 2024 by a majority of 44 votes.[26][27][28]

On 9 March 2026 at 00:00 SLST, the Ceylon Electricity Board was officially dissolved and replaced by six state-owned companies (SOE) under the government's CEB restructuring programme.[1][2] The six new companies are further divided as four main and two subsidiary companies. The areas of responsibility for each new organisation are:[3][29]

SOE Responsibility
Electricity Distribution Lanka (Private) Limited Power distribution. All distribution areas, except those under LECO, will fall under EDL
Electricity Generation Lanka (Private) Limited Power generation. All power generation plants formerly owned by the CEB are transferred to EGL.
National System Operator (Private) Limited Power transmission system planning, procurement, future competitive generation, and categorised supply of power to consumers.
National Transmission Network Service Provider (Private) Limited Power transmission lines and related infrastructure.
Employees Fund (Private) Limited Pension and provident fund of all employees. Overseen by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Energy Ventures Lanka (Private) Limited Minor functions that do not fall under the main entities.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The Gazette Extraordinary No. 2478/41 of Thursday, 5 March 2026: Government Notifications, Sri Lanka Electricity Act, No. 36 of 2024, Order under subsection (2) of section 1" (PDF). Department of Government Printing. 5 March 2026. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b Samarawickrama, Chaturanga Pradeep (9 March 2026). "CEB no more: Major power sector restructuring begins". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  3. ^ a b "CEB dissolved; six new companies take over operations". Ada Derana. 9 March 2026. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  4. ^ CEB. "Home". CEB Annual report. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  5. ^ "Demand Side Management - Ceylon Electricity Board". Archived from the original on 23 September 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  6. ^ "Generation of hydro-power has decreased – observes CEB". 2 September 2014. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  7. ^ No more coal plants, retrieved 8 August 2010
  8. ^ Ministry: Current energy projects (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2009, retrieved 7 August 2010
  9. ^ "CEB Annual Financial Statement,2011". Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  10. ^ a b c "A New Coal Power Station the Coal Industry Won't Boast About". HuffPost. 15 September 2014. Archived from the original on 17 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  11. ^ a b "Sri Lanka cuts energy price after start of Chinese-funded coal power plant". Reuters. 16 September 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  12. ^ "Sri Lanka's largest Wind Power Farm 'Thambapavani' added to the National Grid". Sri Lanka News - Newsfirst. 8 December 2020. Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  13. ^ "CEB Electricity generation by source". www.ceb.lk. Ceylon Electricity Board. Archived from the original on 6 November 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  14. ^ "Sri Lanka suffers hours-long power blackout". The Star Malaysia, 25 February 2016. Archived from the original on 26 February 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  15. ^ "Sri Lanka suffers hours-long power blackout". NDTV, 13 March 2016. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  16. ^ "Norochcholai out of action; power cuts to continue". Times Online. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  17. ^ "Cause for power failures in Sri Lanka is lack of regular maintenance - Minister". ColomboPage News Desk, 23 March 2016. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  18. ^ "Biyagama CE warned CEB often" (PDF). Ceylon Today, 17 March 2016. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  19. ^ "Drought, failure to raise power capacity force nationwide power cuts". Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  20. ^ "Load Shedding" (PDF). Ceylon Electricity Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  21. ^ "Sri Lanka CEB loses rs25.5bn". Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  22. ^ "Sri Lanka power tariffs raised - Update ". Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  23. ^ "CEB says electricity bill reduction will not reflect immediately". 17 September 2014. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  24. ^ "PAYE tax owed by CEB employees recovered from consumers: CaFFE". Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  25. ^ "Ceylon Electricity Board Restructuring Committee is entrusted with the responsibilities". 7 August 2022. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  26. ^ "Electricity Bill passed with 44 vote majority". Daily News. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  27. ^ "Sri Lanka parliament passes new electricity law". EconomyNext. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  28. ^ "Sri Lanka Electricity Act, No. 36 of 2024" (PDF). Parliament of Sri Lanka. 27 June 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 March 2025. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  29. ^ "End of a 50-Year Era: CEB Dissolved, Power Sector Split Into Six Companies". Newsfirst. 9 March 2026. Archived from the original on 13 March 2026. Retrieved 13 March 2026.

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