The French Development Agency (AFD) signed a grant agreement worth EUR 450,000 with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Electricité de France (French electric utility) to support the increasing share of intermittent renewable energies in Sri Lanka’s energy mix.

The agreement was signed by AFD Country Director Reda Souirgi, Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board Nalinda Illangakoon and EDF Center for Transportation Systems Engineering representatives in the presence of Jean François Pactet, Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka.

Despite the ongoing economic crisis, France says it continues to support Sri Lanka’s ambitious path towards 70% renewable energy by 2030. This cooperation aims at enhancing CEB capacities in integrating renewable energy from the optimization of the procurement for transmission lines projects to the modelling capacities of energy generation and transmission.

Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka Jean-François Pactet said: “This program is the fruit of a long-lasting knowledge exchange and an example of the synergies that close cooperation between Sri Lanka and France can bring towards achieving our shared objectives to combat climate change.”

In total, AFD committed nearly EUR 80 million to supporting CEB to meet the growing energy demand and diversify the Sri Lankan energy mix.

Ambassador of France and EDF representatives visited the Kalutara substation, a sample of the achievements done by CEB under the Green Power Development and Energy Efficiency Improvement Investment Program and financed by AFD.