Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya stated that two days ago, a proposal had been submitted to him by technical units to cut off the electricity supply of the country for at least 2 hours a day during peak time.

The proposal had reportedly been submitted owing to the high expenditure that would have to be incurred to generate electricity from the seldom-used diesel power plants to compensate for the deficit of hydropower plant generation.

He added that the Ministry had however not decided to impose such a restriction, and had tactfully managed the ordeal in such a way that the public was never even made aware of the difficulties presently faced in the supply of power.

The Minister expressed these sentiments upon attending the annual conference of the Energy Managers Association at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) of Colombo today (28).

Energy management, in simple terms, is determining the best way to utilize less supply to meet a greater demand, he said.

The Minister proceeded to add that he had submitted to the Cabinet a report detailing the expenditure that would have to be incurred to ensure a steady, continuous supply of electricity to the country in the face of the current obstacles.

Accordingly, an additional Rs. 52 billion is reportedly required to achieve said goal.

However, the Minister stated that the estimated cost had by now come down to Rs. 38 billion, as a little amount of power had "thankfully" been generated from the Castlereigh hydro power plant.

Siyambalapitiya said that the Cabinet had agreed to support his mission to ensure a steady supply of electricity.

However, he said, the fact still remains that this is an era where it is important that we, as a country, figure out a plausible course of action to match the supply with the demand.