Solution for the power crisis will be presented in parliament on 29th

Colombo (News 1st): The Ceylon Electricity Board says that it will continue power cuts islandwide till a considerable rainfall is experienced in the hill country. CEB states, to mitigate this crisis, emergency power purchasing must be carried out from private power plants. According to the CEB, at present, the country's electricity demand per day has increased up to 47 Gigawatts per hour. It adds that the warm climate could be a reason for this increase in demand. Due to this issue an additional 4GW/H is required to meet the demand. Currently, hydropower generation has been limited to 5 GW/H and thermal power has been increased up to 38GW/H. Speaking to the media today Minister of Power and Renewable Energy Ravi Karunanayake noted that there is no proper generation plan since 2014 and when the demand rose by 7 to 8 %, the supply cannot be provided. Now the issues become clear. Minister Karunanayake noted that although many people say several things, they need a permanent solution and a plan will b epresented on the 29th in Parliament. He added that the plans submitted earlier have an issue. UPFA MP Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena speaking at a media briefing noted that after the government was appointed in 2015, a single power plant has not been built after the Norochcholai Coal Power plant. Therefore, he noted that the government is solely responsible for this power crisis. The government has not acted as it is known that electricity generation has to be increased by 6 to 8%. MP Abeywardene noted that if 6000 Megawatts are not produced then the whole country will be in the dark and its unstoppable. He added that by taking this into account the government should have implemented a plan from 2015. He pointed out that today the economic growth rate is at 3% and if this continues then within 6 months it'll drop down to 1.7%. After the change in government in 2015, it is Ranjith Siyambalapitya who has held office as the Minister of Power and Renewable Energy over a long time.