There will be no power interruptions during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, says Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development Ravi Karunanayake.

The minister stated this addressing the media following the religious observances including a ‘Pirith Pan Poojawa’ held at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura. This was organized by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to seek blessings to end the prevailing power crisis.

He requested the general public to use electricity sparingly stating that power generation has become an issue due to the acute water shortage prevailing in the country.

Commenting further the minister said, the public has responded positively to the request previously made in this regard as the electricity demand has now decreased from 3600-3700 units to 3200 units.

“This crisis will prevail only for another 10 days and we assure that there will be no power cuts during Sinhala and Tamil New Year,” Minister Karunanayake remarked.

He further said necessary measures would be taken to ensure no such crisis would arise again in the future. “Though reluctantly, we admit that the reason for this crisis is the repercussions of not implementing a permanent power generating programme,” the minister said.

The minister commented that plans are underway to establish 7 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) power plants, several thermal, coal, solar and wind power plants in the country to add 500MW to 600MW to the national grid.

Minister Karunanayake further remarked that the government has not made excessive expenses to create artificial rainfall and that the initial attempts in this regard have been successful.