Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) signed an agreement on Thursday for the ADB to provide a loan of $150 million to the CEB. 

ADB had approved the loan package in November 2024 after rigorous due diligence on technical, economic and social merits of CEB’s upcoming investment proposals. 

“Through these funds, several essential projects in CEB’s long-term transmission plan will be implemented over 2025-2027, which will improve the overall reliability and stability of the grid,” the CEB said. 

Transmission assets built through this loan will enable the integration of planned large-scale renewable energy developments to the national grid, it said. 

Accordingly, the financing will support the construction of 6 new grid substations, 87 km of 132 kV transmission lines, 45 km of 220 kV transmission lines and the augmentation of 2 existing grid substations. 

The CEB and its distribution subsidiary Lanka Electricity Company (LECO), serve over 7.5 million electricity customers, through CEB’s transmission network comprising 3400 km of high voltage lines and 90 grid substations.

The agreement was signed by ADB’s Country Director for Sri Lanka Takafumi Kadono and CEB General Manager Ronald Comester, in the presence of Finance Ministry Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena.