Sri Lanka electricity generation down 22.7-pct in Apr 2020

Jun 21, 2020 (LBO) - Sri Lanka’s total electricity generation (excluding non- conventional electricity as solar, wind, mini-hydro & biomass) stood at 964,043 MWh in the month of April 2020, down 22.7 percent from 12,46,863 MWh in the month of January 2020, data submitted by Ceylon Electricity Board shows.

The reduction of the electricity generation in April 2020 may have caused due to lower demand of electricity as the industrial, hotel and manufacturing sectors halted operations temporarily during the pandemic situation of COVID 19 which lead to an island-wide curfew.

The generation of electricity of the month of April in every year usually shows a downturn due to the Sinhala – Tamil new year.

Sri Lanka generated 12,46,863 MWh of electricity in January, 1,228,279 MWh in February, 1,206,069 MWh in March and 964,043 MWh in April 2020.

Coal has contributed 41 per cent for the total electricity generation in Jan – Apr 2020 while Major hydro has contributed 21 per cent, and thermal oil has contributed 38 per cent.

Oil power plants operated by independent power producers or electricity generated by the private sector from thermal oil stood at 25 per cent from the total electricity generation from Jan to Apr 2020 while oil power plants operated by Ceylon Electricity Board generated 13 per cent for the same period, data shows.  

Maximum Night peak demand during the months of Jan-April 2020 was 2,717.50 MW on 11^th of March 2020.

The reservoir levels for the period of January to April 2020 shown below;