PRESS RELEASE

PUCSL successfully concludes Regional Public Consultations around Sri Lanka for the year 2018

(19/12/2018) – Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the electricity sector regulator and the shadow regulator for the lubricant market, successfully concluded “Regional Public Consultations” which held at nine (09) provinces of Sri Lanka throughout the year seeking public and stakeholder views and suggestions on national framework streetlight management and consumer issues of electricity, drinking water and petroleum sectors marking the final consultation with more than 1000 participants at  North Central Province (Anuradhapura District).  

PUCSL launched the regional consultation process in March this year from the Southern province with the aim of identifying issues of stakeholders pertaining to electricity, water services and petroleum industries, obtaining stakeholder views on drafted rules and regulations and to identify, prepare and modify the regulatory tools.

“PUCSL as the regulator for the electricity sector and the designated regulator for the water services and downstream petroleum sectors decided to expand the public consultation procedure to other provinces in the county which was earlier centralized to western province in the earlier this year with the aim getting the plus of the stakeholders in the other regions,” Saliya Mathew, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka said.

“This process was carried out in accordance to the power vested in the Act of Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka under section 17 (b) and the Electricity Act. We will be making the regulatory decision considering the comments that we received in the consultation process.”

More than 8000 public, government officers, institutions, business community and non-government organisations participated for the public consultations process held throughout the year and about 2500 people representing government, non-government, social group and individual submitted their views and ideas in written and oral formats at the consultations.

PUCSL with the collaboration of the Sustainable Energy Authority has already drafted a national plan for managing street lights in the country. The regional public consultation gave the platform for the public and other stakeholders to comment and give their suggestions on the proposed national plan.

“Now we are in the process of developing the proposed plan with the support of Provincial Councils, Local Government Authorities, Representatives of Consumers and other institutions and we have received a lot of valuable comments representing every social platforms and group,” Damitha Kumarasinghe, Director General of Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka said.

“We hope to implement the plan with public consent and recommendations in all provinces and with the approval of the Government.”

The national plan for street light management aims to provide a solution for the quality, maintenance and installation of street lights, technical standards and for the energy costs of street lighting.

The regional public consultations also identified the recommendations to prepare mechanisms for the issues related to electricity, drinking water and petroleum consumer in collaboration with related government institutions.

According to concerns and suggestions received, PUCSL also plans to upgrade the regulatory tools that have been already prepared for the electricity sector.

Ends.

For more information: Anushika Kamburugamuwa, Assistant Director – Corporate Communication (0718622800)