Avalanche of power outages: CEB and unions in blame game over staff shortage
Handicapped by a severe shortage of technical staff, the Ceylon Electricity Board ( CEB) is struggling to cope with an avalanche of power breakdowns due to heavy monsoon rains accompanied by gusty winds, with the number of outages being more than 450,000 in just the past week.
A senior CEB official told the Sunday Times that the utility's well- trained skilled workers, including engineers, had left the country to join jobs overseas, not only due to the economic crisis but also due to the uncertainty caused by the government's move to restructure the CEB.
He said that about 26,000 technical staff were working in the CEB, and now it has dropped to nearly 23,000, and those who have left the service are skilled workers.
The CEB Engineers Union (CEBEU) also issued a press release on Friday (24) evening, expressing its regret for delays in restoring power outages. The union noted that more than 30,000 power outages were reported within an hour in some areas.
In its statement, the union said, “Currently, the CEB has a very small number of employees available to restore power outages, which inevitably leads to delays in providing the expected quick service to our loyal customers. We want to clarify that the additional groups mentioned by the minister have not yet been received by the CEB.”
A CEBEU official said that a majority of power outages had occurred in distribution lines. "The restoration of these outages is very risky due to heavy rains. Because of this, we are doing this job with great difficulty,” he said.
He said that CEB had been unable to accept a proposal to call in the military's support for power connection restoration as the military lacked the technical expertise.
"Due to the southwest monsoon, we experience power breakdowns, and we restore them as soon as possible, but this time it will take a longer time because of the limited skilled workers," he said.
In a circular sent to heads of divisions under the heading “Reallocation of Engineers to Address the Shortage of Engineers in Certain Branches/Units in CEB” on May 21, the CEB's Acting General Manager, Dr. Narendra De. Silva, accused the Engineers' Union of transferring many engineers to different departments and some departments being closed.
But the union, in its statement, said, “In this already challenging situation, the Acting General Manager of CEB issued a circular on May 21, 2024, abolishing several essential service positions, including the Maintenance Electrical Engineer in the Area Engineer Offices, Construction Units, and Distribution Maintenance Units. This decision, made without any scientific basis, significantly reduces our capacity to provide adequate services to the public during this emergency."
The circular seen by the Sunday Times stated, “The Board, as a solution to mitigating the severe staff shortage in CEB, has decided to re-deploy the existing staff authority without disrupting the essential operational activities of CEB.”
Meanwhile, Power and Energy Ministry Secretary Sulakshana Jayawardena and CEB Chairman N. S. Ilangakoon told a recent meeting of the Parliament's Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that the vacancies were not being filled due to the proposed restructuring of the CEB.
But MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage pointed out that the CEB was already overstaffed.