• Claims three institutions have confirmed that calculation is inaccurate; Dhammika claims it the ‘biggest fraud in recent times’
• Calls for Ministry of Energy to take responsibility for ‘misleading’ Government

The Electricity Consumers’ Association (ECA) yesterday (17) alleged that three institutions have confirmed that the calculations in the Cabinet paper pertaining to the proposed Sahasdanavi Power Plant are misleading and inaccurate.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, ECA General Secretary Sanjeewa Dhammika said that the Secretary to the Energy Ministry Prof. Udayanga Hemapala should accept responsibility for misleading the Cabinet and resign immediately. “The PUCSL has calculated the cost of a unit of electricity at Rs. 43.25 when LNG is used, the CEB has placed it at Rs. 37, and Sahasdanavi Limited has quoted Rs. 39.63 in a media release when capital expenditure is included. The related Cabinet paper stands in stark contrast to these figures.”

He warned that regardless of whether the proposed plant is operated or not, every electricity consumer will face an increase of Rs. 1 per unit of electricity because of a Rs. 15 billion annual capacity charge. “The Government should review this Cabinet decision immediately and suspend it. The engineers preparing the Cabinet paper have deliberately omitted key cost factors. Although four criteria are required to calculate the true cost of generation, only two have been included, leaving out both the cost of restarting the plant (startup costs) and the operation and maintenance costs (O&M).”

Calling the agreement “the biggest fraud in recent times”, Dhammika questioned the silence of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). “It is surprising that the CIABOC is doing nothing about this. There is no point in speaking of corruption after the damage is done.”

Attempts to contact Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakody and Ministry Secretary Prof. Hemapala, and the utility regulator, PUCSL regarding the allegations made, proved futile.

Civil society organisations and political party representatives recently formed a committee to examine allegations of corruption and irregularities in the power purchase agreement (PPA) in question, signed between the CEB and Sahasdanavi Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of LTL Holdings, for the development of a 350MW dual-fuel LNG power plant.