CEB Says Statement Promising ‘Uninterrupted Power Supply’ Was Meant To Be Released On 1st April

The Ceylon Electricity Board said that a statement made last week promising the nation an ‘uninterrupted power supply’ was meant to be released on 1^st April, and that it had accidently been sent to the media ahead of schedule.

The Head of Public Relations at the CEB said, “We apologise for the timing of the statement that we issued last week. The Energy Minister said that we should reassure the public after the island-wide power interruptions earlier this month, by making false claims that it would not happen again and said that the public will not remember the claims that were made in a few weeks. We realised that if we made the statement on April 1^st, no one could blame us for the power cuts as they would have realised that it was made on a day of false news.”

“Unfortunately the new PR intern accidently sent it to the press before the planned date, which has resulted in the confusion. For the purposes of clarity the official view of the CEB is that there will be an uninterrupted power supply only  during periods when current is available,” he added.

The CEB has also said that it will be taking a new approach to informing the public about power interruptions, by telling people how long they have been in the dark after electricity has been restored. “We can then give an accurate indication of the duration of the power cut rather than trying to guess how long it will be enforced for as we have in the past by trying to tell people ahead of the time. This will also be a nice surprise for people who have not saved their work on their computers,” said the Head of Strategy.