CEB deputy general manager criticizes senior officer

COLOMBO (News1st): A Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) deputy general manager has hit out at his senior officer over recent power outages, citing it as a result of negligence by the management. He had made these remarks in a letter that had been sent to the general manager of the CEB. The letter dated September 16, showed that the recommendations of a report on total power failure on September 27, 2015, has not been implemented yet. The report had been published by a Canadian company. The deputy general manager had also referred to an SMS message that he had sent to the CEB general manager on August 17 at 2:33 pm on the 2015 power failure. The message reads as follows; "Please take action to mobilize Control Systems Centre staff to remove Bulk Scale consumers with active generators from the system until TOTAL power restoration is completed. Definitely it will reduce the restoration time which helps to restored embedded generations also" The Deputy General Manager of the Information Technology Unit had stressed that the total failure of the power transmission system could have been managed if the relevant action had been taken based on his message. He pointed out that the country's transmission system and the protection system are currently in a vulnerable position. The entire power supply would not have failed even due to an accident if the systems were in a good condition, according to the deputy general manager. In his letter, he adds that failing to develop these systems would result in island-wide power failures to an extent in which they cannot be restored. A copy of the letter has been sent to the minister-in-charge. The final report of the committee appointed by the minister to probe the island-wide power outage on August 17 is due to be handed over next week. Although the committee is said to be independent, three officials from the CEB and the ministry have been included in it. It must be emphasised that this is a conflict on interest.