HATS OFF TO CEB STARK DIFFERENCE OF PERFORMANCE BETWEEN A STATE ENTITY AND PRIVATE COMPANY IN SRI LANKA
Posted on October 16th, 2016
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
There were several instances when I wrote about CEB performance and I was very critical about the attitude of the behaviour of the CEB Engineering Union .
One incident which took place yesterday has changed my opinion.
I have an 8 KW solar power installed by a company who have been pioneers in Solar Power supply .I was one of the first customers who have installed the solar system which saves my bill almost 70%.Yesterday I noted an error message on the inverter panel of the solar generator system which says that one phase of power is high and irregular and the system shut down took place.
I called the emergency number given by the Solar company and after several attempts managed to contact the engineer and requested them to attend to the problem as any non-function of solar generation will deprive me of power sevings..
Being a private company I expected them to come immediately but sadly they claimed that they do not have any one on duty on Sunday hence they will TRY next week .I was furious and started blasting the engineer who spoke to me and expressed my dismay.
After some time smoke was emanating from the CEB switch Board and I noted that one of the circuit breakers caught fire threatening the shutdown of the whole system. I put on a pair of rubber slippers and opened the switch board and pulled out the fuses and manged to, douse the fire .
Next thing I did was calling 1987 which is the emergency number given who identified my address using my telephone number immediately and promised to send a team to attend to the emergency.
Being a Sunday and considering that CEB is a state enterprise I did not expect them to respond that quick ,but to my surprise the team from CEB from Thalangama was at my door step in less than 10 minutes .
They remove the burnt parts and replace circuit breaker in five minutes and left.
CEB in Sri Lanka despite being a state entity is doing well, and the Solar Power Company with a J ealous” name attached to it never even responded.
I have decided not to complain ever again against CEB as the Engineers are performing their duty diligently.
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
October 17th, 2016 at 3:59 am
Thank you Dr. Obeysekera for this post. What also gives me hope for the future of my country is that behind all those greedy, corrupt and incompetent people in the public and private sector of whose actions we normally hear about more often, there are still and always have been, decent, competent and intelligent people doing their duties with consideration and care.
They are a generally silent minority, but an absolutely essential one. And should receive their due appreciation as you have done here.
October 18th, 2016 at 3:32 am
Installing solar panels and smart meters should have been done by the CEB preferably through a subsidiary like Lanka transformers. That could have provided this,in today’s context an “essential” service to people at an affordable price instead of allowing private firms to fleece the people.
October 18th, 2016 at 9:52 am
I too have solar panels giving me electricity, saving a bit, here in SL and in UK.
We are going through a supply crisis with power cuts due to a fault in the coal powered station.
My suggestion is encourage people to use grid connected solar panel system that supply the grid with surplus electricity where need for hydro electricity is reduced during the day and restart the hydro generators at night. Also the government could pump water to a high level reservoir in the day using solar power and use the pumped water to generate electricity at night.