ECONOMYNEXT – A 10 member committee has been appointed to study the newly passed Sri Lanka Electricity Act, following a cabinet decision to review the law, state-run Ceylon Electricity Board said.
The 10 member committee has been appointed by the Ministry of Energy, “for a comprehensive review towards the amendment of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act and to submit the recommendations within one month period”.
Udayanga Hemapala, Secretary to the Ministry of Energy will chair and Pubudu Niroshan Hedigallage, Director General of Power Sector Reforms Secretariat will act as the General Secretary of the Committee.
Chandana Wijayasinghe, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Energy has been appointed as the Convener of the Committee.
Tilak Siyambalapitiya Chairman of Ceylon Electricity Board and Janaka Aluthge, LECO have been appointed as members to the committee.
Athula Rajapakse, Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba is also member.
He has been in the Energy Policy Committee which delivered an energy policy framework 2024 towards a people-centric energy transition in recent presidential campaign.
Lilantha Samaranayake, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Senior lecturers, Thushara Rathnayake and Indra Mahakalanda, University of Moratuwa are representing the committee from the academia.
Kosala Kamburadeniya, President-Elect 2024-25 of Institution of Engineers, is also a member. He led the IESL appointed electricity reforms committee during 2022-24 along with several others.
The current Minister of Energy, Kumara Jayakody had also worked to get the Act “on the correct path”,
and al parties who “constructively commented” over the past year will now get a chance one year later, the statement said.
The ruling party, during their election campaign had given assurance to bring energy costs down within a competitive unbundled market while implementing entire electricity sector reforms without privatization of current assets, the statement said.
The existing law was passed as a prior action of a budget support loan from the Asian Development Bank. (Colombo/Jan03/2024)
