June 12, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's power generation rose 02 percent in March 2013 to 1,057 GigaWatt hours (millions of units) from a year earlier, recovering from a slump in February official data showed.
In February 2013 power generation fell 1.4 percent to 913 GWh from a year earlier.
In February 2012, Sri Lanka raised power prices and the central bank floated the exchange rate and started pulling back from injection of tens of billions of rupees into the banking system that had fired a credit bubble to end a balance of payments crisis.
A balance of payments crisis, involving 'shortages' of foreign currency are associated with so called soft-pegged exchange rate arrangements where a central bank prints domestic money and tries to control the exchange rate at the same time, which is against the laws of nature.
In the first quarter of 2013, power generation was up 0.5 percent to 2,957 GWh from a year earlier.
In the year to December 2012 power generation grew 2.4 percent to 11,807 amid a slowing economy and some power cuts as two large power plants failed at the same time. Sri Lanka's economic growth slowed to 6.4 percent in 2012 from 8.2 percent in 2011.
There has also been 'unofficial load shedding' this year. The state power utility has also been losing some of its biggest domestic customers to the renewable energy lobby, through net metering and exorbitant tariffs above cost.
But higher prices also tend to increase conservation and make both industries and households invest in energy efficient technology.
Amid better rainfall, state-run Ceylon Electricity Board's hydro power generation rose 119 percent to 351GWh in March, usually a relatively dry month and thermal generation was down just 6.8 percent to 341 GWh.
Private sector power generation was down 28.5 percent to 364GWh.
In the first quarter, CEB hydro generation was up 166 percent to 1,264GWh, thermal generation fell 12.7 percent to 828GWh.
Purchases from independent power producers (IPPs) were down 43 percent to 864GWh. Non-conventional renewable energy was up 66.7 percent to 25GWh.