The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has decided to deliver 1,500 metric tons of diesel to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) daily until January 18.

Its chairman Sumith Wijesinghe stated that further action would be taken following a discussion scheduled for that day.

The CPC earlier stated that it is no longer able to provide fuel to the CEB on credit basis, however, it reached the aforesaid urgent decision after taking into account the ongoing situation.

Disruptions to the power supply can be expected in the coming days if required stocks of fuel are not received to continue the operations at power plants, the CEB had cautioned previously.

The CEB further stated that it is compelled to impose daily power cuts owing to the shortage of heavy fuel and diesel required for power plants, breakdown of a generator at the Norochcholai power plant, and decreased in water levels in reservoirs for hydropower plants. A privately-owned generator at the Kelanitissa power plant also broke down recently.

Many areas have been experiencing sporadic power cuts over the past few days. Against this backdrop, the CEB published a manual load shedding schedule indicating the times and areas where there could be possible power cuts.

It said the demand management measures would be taken as per the schedule, due to inadequate generation as a result of fuel shortage and unavailability of generators.

Although it was later announced that there is no need to impose power cuts again as the privately-owned generator at the Kelanitissa power plant was repaired after the sudden breakdown, electricity supply was interrupted in parts of the island yesterday.