Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition
Hon. Sajith Premadasa questioned whether a stated matter was a printing error before seeking clarification on the Government’s preparedness for escalating Iran-Israel-US tensions. He argued that strategic and scenario planning should have anticipated impacts on energy security, citing reduced Norochcholai output over several days and the resulting reliance on diesel generation amid possible global shortages. He referred to PUCSL warnings of power cuts in April, June and July, and demanded a clear, data-driven plan to prevent load-shedding and consumer price increases.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Is it a printing error or not? Otherwise we are stating wrong things here. I will proceed with my clarification.
¶ 02 Strategic planning and scenario planning are essential. Tensions between Iran, Israel, and the US have been escalating for months; this could have been forecast.
¶ 03 On energy security: when power plants underperform and diesel plants are ramped up, consumer prices rise and global diesel shortages bite, leading possibly to load-shedding. On 13th, Norochcholai output was down 130 MW; on 14th, down 135 MW; on 15th, down 132 MW; on 16th, down 148 MW. This shortfall must be met by diesel generation, worsening the problem amid global constraints. The PUCSL warns of power cuts in April, June, and July. Present your clear, data-driven plan to avert this.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 March 2026 ·No. 23387 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/3029
Cite as: Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 March 2026. No. 23387. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/3029