The Ministry of Energy says a rapid renewable energy generation plan will be in effect from 1st of June, 2022.

Minister Kanchana Wijesekera pointed out that the fuel bill for power generation has exceeded USD $100 million per month.

He further said that the average cost per unit generation has increased to Rs 48.

Minister Wijesekera therefore, outlined the following 02 quick solutions to address the matter:

• Convert Industries, government, hospitals, hotels and other roof space available for roof top solar. With tariff rates Changes proposed the current Electricity bill will triple in most of the above Sectors. They can invest the current electricity bill amount on solar panels to be paid monthly to the solar companies to lessen the burden on their institutes and also the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) grid.The CEB can manage the hydro and thermal power plants to be used during the night time to reduce generation cost.

• Provisional approvals to be granted immediately for proposed projects with a revisal of rates to be reasonable.After the approval is issued, work with the CEB, the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA), and Investor for transmission line and grid capacity enhancement with the required investment coming from the project investor. This will speed up the project timeline.

Minister Kanchana Wijesekera also revealed that large scale investments for selected renewable projects will also be accommodated later after technical and financial evaluation