The Ceylon Electricity Board’s recent directive asking rooftop solar users to deactivate their systems during the New Year period has triggered a storm of controversy, revealing deep fractures in Sri Lanka’s energy policies and a growing distrust between the public and state utilities.
According to a public notice, solar panel owners were urged to disconnect their systems by 3:00 p.m. from April 10 to April 21. The CEB cited excessive power generation and low national demand during the holidays as a serious threat to grid stability. Their warning: without such deactivations, the nation risked facing either a partial blackout or a full-scale national power outage.
The CEB stated that during the New Year period, electricity usage typically plummets, while solar power generation increases due to intense daylight. The combined effect, they claimed, overloaded the grid and compromised system “inertia,” a technical requirement to maintain frequency and resist fluctuations.
But this explanation has come under intense scrutiny from energy professionals and solar advocates. The Solar Power Construction Association (SPCA) has called the directive a covert campaign to discredit and discourage solar adoption.
Dr. Shyam Pathiraja, President of the SPCA, says this situation could have been avoided if the CEB had implemented long-demanded technical upgrades. “We have been requesting grid modernization since 2019: battery energy storage systems (BESS), hybrid inverters, and fair tariffs for nighttime power supply. None of that has happened,” he said.
He added that out of over 612 approved drugs, 13 are categorized as life-saving, 460 as essential, and 139 as non-essential. While this classification facilitates efficient health resource management, the underlying shortages raise red flags.
The CEB’s directive coincided with an April 11 agreement to purchase power from diesel and oil-fired plants at a rate ranging from Rs. 32 to Rs. 74 per unit. Critics say this raises suspicions about whether the shutdown request was genuinely driven by technical issues or strategically timed to justify new fossil fuel contracts.
Dr. Pathiraja revealed that LECO and CEB forcibly disconnected rooftop systems above 100kW that had not complied with the notice. “Even if a system produces just one kilowatt, we were told to shut it down. That’s not a request; it’s a veiled threat,” he said. “We see this as an indirect attempt to make the public complicit in power failures, despite doing nothing wrong.”
He also warned of a growing anti-renewable stance within the electricity board, stating that customers who installed systems on loans, often mortgaging their property, now risk defaulting as they are blocked from earning returns.
Energy expert Ashoka Abeygunawardena supports this concern. He argues the correct response should have been to shut down one or two coal plants temporarily. “Instead, they halted clean energy. That’s not a safeguard—it’s a scandal,” he said.
Abeygunawardena claims this move is not rooted in technical necessity. “This is a ploy to keep coal in the game and open doors for petroleum power purchases from private players,” he said, warning it will deter future solar investments.
He added that none of the 17 recommendations made by engineers during the recent blackout included the shutdown of solar systems. “So what we have here is not a systems management solution but a strategic sabotage to make way for vested interests.”
The CEB, however, maintains its stance. Inertia, the natural resistance to frequency fluctuation provided by heavy rotating generators like those in hydro and fossil fuel plants, cannot be supplied by solar panels. When solar generation rises and traditional plants are sidelined, the system’s inertia drops, making it susceptible to cascading failures.
The Board notes that rooftop systems—now totaling over 100,000 in a user base of 7 million—are not centrally controllable, making grid management more difficult during low-demand, high-supply conditions.
According to the CEB, until the country implements BESS, grid-interactive solar inverters, or pumped hydro storage, reliance on large synchronous machines is unavoidable.
Media spokesperson Engineer Dhammika Wimalaratne justified the move by pointing to similar measures in Australia, where citizens are asked to disconnect solar panels during off-peak demand. But solar advocates counter that comparison.
“Australia subsidizes solar installations,” said Dr. Pathiraja. “In Sri Lanka, people pay from their own pocket—often by mortgaging homes. There, governments have a stake. Here, they are penalizing people for trying to be sustainable.”
The episode has opened up a broader conversation about the direction of Sri Lanka’s energy future. At a time when the world is transitioning away from fossil fuels, Sri Lanka appears to be doubling down on them—while sidelining its own citizens who invested in clean energy.
As power sector officials remain silent about the future of renewables and pressure mounts over transparency and grid modernization, one question looms large:
Was this really about grid protection—or was it a calculated step back from clean energy in favor of preserving fossil-fueled profits?
When the CEB says that:
Inertia, the natural resistance to frequency fluctuation provided by heavy rotating generators like those in hydro and fossil fuel plants, cannot be supplied by solar panels. When solar generation rises and traditional plants are sidelined, the system’s inertia drops, making it susceptible to cascading failures.
THEY ARE RIGHT.
Ashoka Abeygnawarden MAY WELL BE an Energy Expert (he is also apparently an Electrical Engineer by training). BUT despite being a so-called Electrical Engineer, he clearly knows nothing about grid operation and grid stability, if he is incapable of recognizing the valid point about inertia on the grid.