A power cut of 10 or 12 hours a day is unavoidable if coal is not imported within days for the generation of electricity, warns chairman of the Public Utilities Commission Janaka Ratnayake.
A 250,000 metric ton stock presently available will be exhausted by October 28, he says.
The two generators at the Norochcholai power plant alone require 5,000 mt of coal a day.
A non-availability of coal will deny 900 megawatts of electricity to the national grid as coal accounts for 35 percent of the total generation, says Ratnayake.
According to him, coal should be imported every five days, at a cost of USD 21 million per shipment.
The only remaining solution is to pay upfront for the 19 orders that were made last year, he adds.
