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CEB Engineers’ Union says no manipulation in blackouts

08 Dec 2021

  • Claims internal probes confirm no external manipulation
  • AKD accuses Lokuge of evading tabling agreement
BY Pamodi Waravita The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) yesterday (8) said that internal investigations by the CEB have revealed that there has not been any external manipulation of the Biyagama and Kotmale power lines which could have led to the power outages that occurred in the country last week. “Internal investigations carried out by the CEB have confirmed that there has not been any external manipulation of the relays in the Biyagama and Kotmale lines. These records cannot be altered and are available for any party to investigate,” said the CEBEU in a statement issued yesterday. On 6 December, the CEB Senior Engineers’ Association (CEBSEA) called for an impartial investigation into the unusual power outages that occurred in the country in the last two weeks, whilst claiming that the CEBEU’s actions are suspicious in this regard. The CEBSEA further accused the CEBEU of being unprofessional in fighting for their demands. However, the CEBEU said yesterday that the allegations by a “group calling themselves the CEBSEA” are “totally false”. “One of their allegations is that there was remote access to relays and thereby the settings had been changed to create a maloperation. The CEB has ‘Siemens’ and ‘Schneider’ (MiCOM) main protection relays and ‘Qualitrol BEN 6000’ fault recorders installed at the Biyagama and Kotmale grid substations. If anyone has accessed these relays, remotely or otherwise, and modified anything, all such changes and accesses are logged internally as ‘Events’ in the ‘Relay Events List’ and cannot be deleted,” said the CEBEU. The CEBEU further said that there has been an actual fault in the Biyagama-Kotmale 220 kilovolt backbone transmission line, for which the cause is still being determined. Two power outages were reported in Sri Lanka over the last two weeks, with the most recent one on 3 December being an islandwide blackout. The Government has stated that they are conducting investigations to verify the claims of sabotage. The CEBEU has also been involved in ongoing trade union action over six main demands, including the withdrawal of the New Fortress Energy Inc. agreement, which they claim is “illegal”. Yesterday, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) Leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) accused Minister of Power Gamini Lokuge of deliberately evading the tabling of the said agreement in Parliament. Dissanayake said: “I requested for the agreement that was signed between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and New Fortress Energy Inc. to be tabled in Parliament. We have the right to know the details in the agreement. Public finances should be discussed in Parliament. This agreement includes public finances, so it is right for the public to know the truth. “Ever since I asked for this agreement to be tabled in Parliament, Lokuge has not turned up in Parliament, and I have a feeling that he is evading this. He must remember that although he is the Power Minister and has a portfolio, he is dealing with public finances and that there should be some accountability. He must remember that these dealings cannot be hidden from the public.”


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