Power Plan

Oct 09, 2007 (LBO) - Fresh legislation to regulate the power sector is being readied after Sri Lanka's highest court said an earlier plan to break up the utility was unconstitutional, officials said. Although the state electricity monopoly Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) won’t be 'unbundled' or broken up in to generating, long distance transmitting and retail sales or distributing business, its operations will be separated within a single entity.

It would have been nice to have an unbundled industry like it is all over the world," says Priyantha Wijayatunga who heads the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), which will regulate the electricity sector.

"An unbundled industry is easier to regulate and bring in efficiency improvement to."

There won’t be any structural changes to the CEB under the proposed new system for regulation.

Though there is no unbundling, you can stimulate a similar system within the vertically intergraded CEB to bring in independent regulation," says Wijayatunga.

"There are drawbacks but it's better than nothing. That’s a step forward.

The PUCSL, which was also established four years ago at the same time elec