Executive Summary

Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is the only Utility which Generates, Transmits and Distribute the
Power Supply of Electricity in Sri Lanka. Ceylon Electricity Board provides this essential service to
about 7 million Consumers Island wide including hose holds, industries, commercial entities,
schools, hospitals, hotels, etc. In order to provide this essential service to all citizens in the country,
CEB follows a subsidized tariff system (for the most of the customers) with the regulations from
the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), where CEB would not allow generate any
profit from the business.
It is observed that the majority of the revenue of the CEB is from the distribution sector and are
collected by energy selling in a monthly basis after issuing the electricity bill for the previous month
to the electricity customers. Also CEB earns revenue from other services like new service
connections, cost paid line construction, property damages, temporary connections, line shifting
and other cost paid jobs, etc.
The subject is for this case is the North Central Province (NCP), which is the largest geographical
province in the Distribution Sector in Ceylon Electricity Board and it is explained the major activities
in this selected segment for the case. In order to build the case study, the executive staff and the
junior executive staff was interviewed and their ideas and observations were captured. The Deputy
General Manager-NCP, Chief Engineers, Engineers, Accountants and Electrical Superintendents
were interviewed in order to gather details regarding CEB Billing System, revenue collection,
system losses and cost incur in electricity distribution.
In North Central Province (NCP), CEB has about 450,000 customers (approximately 7.2 % of the
total customers in CEB) under Domestic, General Purpose, Industrial, Hotel, and Government, etc
tariff categories in three main Area Offices as Anuradhapura, Minneriya and Kekirawa which are
the major Districts/Cities in NCP
In order to avoid any losses, or to be breakeven as a non-profit oriented organization, CEB has to
cover the expenses from the revenue earned during any financial period. But it is observed that
they are many ways causing CEB to collect lesser amount of revenue than the expected, especially
in bill collection.
So, in this case there are few main areas are focused, which are the CEB billing system, revenue
collection, systematic issues and cost related to the total process. The objective of this case study
is to provide an overview about the procedures, systems, methodologies used in NCP, CEB for
different purposes and their characteristics and details as much as possible.
1. Introduction to Ceylon Electricity Board
1.1. About Ceylon Electricity Board
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is the main organization responsible for Generation, Transmission
and Distribution (major part) of electrical power in Sri Lanka.
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is the only Utility supplier of Electricity in Sri Lanka providing this
essential service to about 7 million consumers island wide. In CEB there are around 24,600 number
of employees island wide.
The Ceylon Electricity Board was established under an Act of Parliament No.17 of 1969 and was
amended by Act Nos. 31 of 1969, 29 of 1979 and 32 of 1988. Now the CEB is governed under the
Ministry of Power and Energy and a Regulator called Public Utilities Commission Sri Lanka (PUCSL).
Vision of CEB
“Enrich Life through Power.”
Mission of CEB
“To develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical system of electricity supply
to the whole of Sri Lanka, while adhering to our core values;
Quality
Service to the nation
Efficiency and effectiveness
Commitment
Safety
Professionalism
Sustainability”

1.2. Objectives of CEB

Ceylon Electricity Board being the only Legal Authority in Sri Lanka to Generate, Transmit and
Distribute Electricity has several key objectives to achieve, which are directly align to the strategic
goals of the Nation.
Prior to 2015, the prime objective of CEB was the 100% Electrification of the Nation. After
achieving that milestone by 2017, CEB is now targeting to achieve continuous Power Supply Island
wide, where the power is available 24/7 without any interruption with the guaranteed norms of
the power quality.
Also CEB is known among the public as an institute which is generally running at a loss since early
days. So it reflects that there is another objective of CEB to achieve breakeven in operations with
the revenue income vs. cost of production. As CEB is an essential service, it cannot make to a profit
generating organization, but can be made to a breakeven entity and it has been so in the years of
2015 and 2016.
1.3. Organizational structure of CEB
CEB is listed under the Ministry of Power and Energy as an independent organization. The
Chairman represents the Ministry and General Manager represents the CEB. The organization is
governed by a Board of Directors. The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka acts as the regulator
of CEB. The Chief Executive Officer of the CEB is the General Manager. There are 09 Additional
General Managers and the Finance Manager under him the organizational structure of CEB is as
follows.

Chairman & Board of

Directors

General
Manager

AGM DD1 AGM DD2

AGM DD3 AGM DD4

AGM
AGM Generation
Transmission

AGM Asset
AGM Projects
Management

AGM Coorporate
Finance Manager
Strategy

Chief Legal Chief Audit

Officer Officer

Chart 1.1 Organizational Structure of CEB

1.4 Organizational structure of North Central Province Branch
The North Central Province (NCP) which is under AGM – DD1 is responsible for the electricity
supply of North Central Province which is the largest province of Sri Lanka. Under Deputy General
Manager (NCP), several Chief Engineers and Electrical Engineers work for the organization. The
Organizational Structure of North Central Province is as follows.

CE (Commercial)

CE (Distribution
Maintenance)
CE (Planning &
Development)
DGM (NCP)

CE (Construction)

Area Engineers

Accountant

Human Resource Officer

Chart 1.2 Organizational Structure of North Central Province

1.5. CEB Process and the Duties of the North Central Province (NCP) Branch
NCP branch of CEB is a distribution sector provincial office and it has main duties of providing
electricity connections to the customers and maintain that supply continuously. Also routine
maintenance, new line construction, system planning and development, procurement of
equipment, goods and material, revenue collection, etc are some main tasks of the NCP branch.
In order to provide electricity to the customers and collect the revenue, the main process of North
Central Province branch is to purchase electricity from Transmission Division and sell it to the retail
and bulk customers in the province. To achieve this task, Area Engineers offices, where there are
three offices in North Central Province branch as; Anuradhapura, Minneriya and Kekirawa are
maintaining Boundary Meters and Generation Meters (from Mini Hydro Power Plants and Solar
PV Plants) and supply and maintain all customers’ electricity connections.
The respective Area Electrical Engineers issue the monthly bill to the consumers through Customer
Service officers (often called as Meter Readers) and the revenue was collected through CEB Cost
Centers, Post Offices, Telecommunication Service Provider and registered Private Business Units,
etc. The Accountant office in the NCP branch and Area Electrical Engineers are responsible for this
revenue collection process.
To meet the increasing demand of electricity, the Planning division estimates the new power
system distribution, i.e.; the new transformer and line requirements. After that, the Construction
unit does the construction of those proposals, where after the completion the Provincial
Distribution Maintenance unit and the Area Offices take over for maintenance.

2. Network Distribution
The electrical distribution system is mainly divided in to two categories as High Voltage (HV)
network and Low Voltage (LV) network, in all distribution sector platforms. The difference is mainly
by the system voltages, where the High Voltage (HV) network demarcates 33 kV and 11 kV voltages
and Low Voltage (LV) demarcates 400 V voltage system.
2.1 The Power System
According to the Commercial Engineer in NCP branch of CEB, Mr. Dayanga, in NCP branch of CEB,
there are approximately about 4,000 km of HV lines and about 12,000 km of LV lines network.
According to him this is considered as the largest distribution network in Sri Lanka, accumulating
two largest geographical districts Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.
Also Mr. Dayanga mentioned that about 70% of the electricity customers in NCP are connected to
the LV network while the rest (about 30%) who are the Bulk Consumers, who are connected mainly
to the HV Network. He further said, the HV network acts as the backbone of the distribution system
of the province electrical power supply.
During the discussion with Mr. Dayanga, he provided the following statistics regarding the
distribution network in NCP branch.
Table 2.1 HV and LV network lengths of NCP

Anuradhapura Kekirawa Minneriya Total

HV Network 1,735 km 984 km 1,285 km 3,954 km
LV Network 4,657 km 3,681 km 2,978 km 11,316 km
300

250

200

150 Anuradhapura
Kekirawa

100 Minneriya

50

Chart 2.1 HV Breakdowns of NCP from 2017 December to 2018 December

1200

1000

800

600 Anuradhapura
Kekirawa
400 Minneriya

200

Chart 2.2 LV Breakdowns of NCP from 2017 December to 2018 December

It is noted that there is a seasonal pattern in the breakdowns occurred in NCP and Mr. Dayanga
explained that due to monsoons and high winds, there is a pattern of high breakdown occurrence
expected in all three Area Offices. He further said the main causes for those breakdowns are way
leaves touching and falling on power lines, lightning strikes, vehicle and other accidents, aging of
power lines, etc.
2.2 Attending to Breakdowns and Routine Maintenance
In order to maintain a steady power supply, prompt attending to breakdowns and doing routine
maintenance are vital. Mr. Dayanga mentioned that they have a separate maintenance unit in NCP
branch to attend HV maintenance, where they do routine maintenance in HV lines and
Transformers. But he further said, the existing staff is not nearly enough to cover the 4,000 km HV
lines and all the transformers in the NCP.
Also Mr. Dayanga described the breakdowns are attended through the breakdown gangs at the
Customer Service Centers (CSC), established under Area Offices. Again he didn’t forget to mention
that the existing staff is not enough to cover this large geographical area, specially with high
vegetation and wildlife.
He also mentioned that as in developed countries, we do not possess sophisticated fault finding
mechanisms and hence a significant time is taken to complete a breakdown, which would result
loss of income due to loss of power and customer dissatisfaction.
Mr. Dayanga was generous enough to provide the following details regarding the breakdown
teams and the geographical area they have to cover daily.
Table 2.2 Breakdown Team details and Area of CSCs in NCP

Number of Breakdown Teams Approximate Area Covered

Anuradhapura Area
Anuradhapura CSC 4 90 km2
Mihinthale CSC 3 390 km2
Medawachchiya CSC 2 320 km2
Nochchiyagama CSC 2 280 km2
Padaviya CSC 2 220 km2
Kekirawa Area
Kekirawa CSC 3 480 km2
Thambuttegama CSC 2 320 km2
Galenbindunuwewa CSC 1 220 km2
Minneriya Area
Polonnaruwa CSC 3 280 km2
Mananpitiya CSC 2 410 km2
Hinguraggoda CSC 3 360 km2
Habarana CSC 2 150 km2
2.3 Call Center Process
It is noted that, there is a customer center or a call center in NCP which functions 24 hours every
day attending customer complaints. Mr. Dayanga further explained the process of the call center
as from the point of complaint to the completion feedback as follows. He said that the duration to
complete a breakdown would vary from couple of minutes to couple of hours due to the nature
of the breakdown and the availability of the staff.

Consumer
Create a job

Call Centre Agent

Forward the complaint
to back-office Agent
Call Centre back-office
Agent
Consumer Nearest/Relevant
Feedback Breakdown Team
Breakdown Team
Report back to the back-
office Agent
Call Centre back-office
Agent
Close the job
Call Centre Agent

Chart 2.3 Call Centre Operations

3. CEB Billing System

3.1 Tariff Structure in CEB
The tariff structure for the customers in the distribution sector are in multi-disciplinary and
categorized as the nature of the usage. Most of the tariffs are in blocks, where after another unit
of consumption, the charged tariff is changed. Tariffs in CEB are somewhat reflective on the
purpose of the use, as Domestic, Hotels, Religious, etc.
All most all the tariffs of the CEB are subsidized by the government as per the policies of the
government to make sure the affordability of an electricity supply to everyone. In order to get
more details regarding the CEB Billing system and processes in NCP Brach, Mr. Vithanage, a
Chartered Accountant and the Accountant of the NCP branch of CEB was interviewed.
Mr. Vithanage too was very helpful in providing details for this study and he provided the current
tariff structure of the CEB, which is as follows.
Table 3.1 Tariff Structure in CEB

Types Description Tariffs

Domestic 1, Time of
Domestic Houses only
Use (Domestic)
Manufacturing goods and
Industrial products, processing Industrial 1
goods, etc
Religious places and
Religious Religious 1
Orphanages
Hotels, Restaurants and
Hotel Hotel 1
holiday resorts
Nonprofit government
Ordinary Supply and semi-government
Government Government 1
Categories entities, schools, hospitals,
etc

Plantation fields, Time of Use

Agriculture
agriculture production, etc (Agriculture)
Commercial entities,
shops, banks, all
General Purpose General Purpose 1
temporary connections,
etc
Street lights (only for
Street Lights Street Light
public illumination)

3.2 Billing Process

According to Mr. Vithanage, CEB has a nominal monthly issued billing system, where the monthly
bill is issued in the next month by manually. The way of delivering the bill is by using meter readers
and at the point of meter reading. Mr. Vithanage says that the billing system of CEB has a
systematic method of generating bills, where the previous month readings and outstanding are
accumulated to this months’ bill for a nominal billing period of 30 days, which could be changed
between 21 days to 40 days due to practical reasons.
 Reading the
Recieving the Issuing the
Print the next meter at
Billpack by the original copy to
month Bill consumer's
reader the customer
location

Entering the Submit the

Send to bill print Checking errors data to the duplicate copy
system to the office

Print the next

month bill

Chart 3.1 Billing process of CEB for ordinary customers

Further, Mr. Vithanage elaborated that the bills are calculated over the used amount of energy
over the respective tariff and the fixed charges and other costs (eg: interests, processing charges,
etc.) are added to the total. If there is a due from the previous month, a warning (Red Notice) will
be issued. He also mentioned that the CEB uses discourage-based tariff structure, where the
customer has to pay a higher tariff if the consumption is high.
As an example he said that a house with a tariff of domestic (D1) would have a bill as follows, if
the consumption exceeds pre-determined blocks. He further said the bill calculator and the tariff
lists are available at their web site (www.ceb.lk) for anyone to calculate their monthly bills and
other bill related details.
Eg : 89 kWh for 30 days
7.85 x 60 = 471/- (for first 60 units)
10 x 29 = 290/- (for next 29 units)
Fixed charge 90/- (fixed charge for consumption lesser than 90 units)
Total = 851/- (Charge per day = 28.37/-)

Eg : 91 kWh for 30 days

7.85 x 60 = 471/- (for first 60 units)
10 x 30 = 300/- (for next 30 units)
27.75 x 1 = 27.75/- (for next 1 unit)
Fixed charge 480/- (fixed charge for consumption lesser than 120 units)
Total = 1,278.75/- (Charge per day = 42.63/-)
3.3 Customer Statistics in NCP Branch, CEB

Mr. Vithanage extended his explaining by giving out the ordinary customer composition of NCP,
how they are scattered and their distribution in Area vise. The following tables and charts shows
the details provided by Mr. Vithanage.

Table 3.2 Ordinary Customer Details in NCP

Area Total Consumers
Anuradhapura 182,614
Minneriya 139,477
Kekirawa 124,326
Total 446,417

ORDINARY CONSUMERS OF NCP - CEB

Total Consumers
182,614

139,477

124326

ANURADHAPURA MINNERIYA KEKIRAWA

Chart 3.2 Ordinary Customer Details in NCP

It shows that the most number of customers are in Anuradhapura area and also in all three areas,
the majority of the customers are domestic tariff customers (more than 87%). According to Mr.
Vithange, the number of new connections per month is also have similar composition. But the
majority being domestic customers and the government also has given a huge subsidiary for their
tariff is the major reason for the poor financial status in NCP, said Mr. Vithanage.
According to Mr. Vithanage, though there are new tariffs introduced such as Agriculture and
Domestic TOUs, there is very little interest in the customers in changing to them. He further
mentioned the average bill per house is less than 500/- in the NCP where it is around 2,000/- in
the Western Province, where the buying price would be almost the same.
 Total Consumers - Anuradhapura
Area
1%
0%

1%
11%
Anuradhapura Area
Tarriff Total Consumers
Domestic 158,890
Industrial 2,848
General Purpose 19,712
87% Religious & Charity 1,163
Hotel 1

Domestic Industrial General Purpose

Religious & Charity Hotel

Chart 3.3 Total Ordinary Consumers – Anuradhapura Area

Total Consumers - Kekirawa Area

0%0%

2% Kekirawa Area
10%
Tarriff Total Consumers
Domestic Domestic 109,011
Industrial Industrial 1,888
General Purpose General Purpose 12,774
Religious & Charity Religious & Charity 640
Hotel Hotel 13
88%

Chart 3.4 Total Ordinary Consumers – Kekirawa Area

 Total Consumers - Minneriya Area

0%
0%
2%
10% Minneriya Area
Tarriff Total Consumers
Domestic
Domestic 122,428
Industrial
Industrial 2,155
General Purpose
General Purpose 14,260
Religious & Charity
Religious & Charity 622
Hotel
Hotel 12
88%

Chart 3.5 Total Ordinary Consumers – Minneriya Area

4. Revenue Collection at CEB

One of the most important part of an organization is the collection of revenue. Mr. Vithanage, the
Accountant in NCP branch volunteered to discuss about the revenue collection in NCP.
According to Mr. Vithanage, CEB faces lots of difficulties in collecting their revenue, which has a
minimum of one month arrears, due to 30 day billing cycles. He says most of the customers in
rural places, which is the majority number, do not have local stations or methods to do bill
payments. They have to come to the nearest town to settle their bills, which is time consuming
and hence they are not entertained to pay, said Mr. Vithanage.
Mr. Vithanage mentioned that though CEB has facilitated online bill payments, which costs extra,
people try to pay at CEB cost counters at the Area Offices, even though it is time consuming. He
further mentioned average outstanding of a customer is more than 0.8 (in months) in NCP.
4.1 Payment Methods available
Mr. Vithanage explained that there are several payment methods available for customers, such as
paying at the cost counters, sending cheque, through banks, food cities and post offices, through
mobile e-money, and all other 3rd party payment gateways. But yet the customer payment is less
than anticipated. Mr. Vithanage further described, households are essential supplies to the public.
But CEB should have a method to reach them to collect the payments on-time. If not this arrears
will never be paid, he said.
He described his views as there is a wrong with CEB policies. He said, CEB is currently following a
negative reinforcement motivation for customers to pay bills, which is adding interests to late
payments and supply disconnection for bill arrears. He continued that if CEB moves from negative
to positive reinforcement, which would be giving a discount for early bill payment (eg. Water
board), CEB could collect more revenue.
Mr. Vithanage mentioned there are many positive proposals forwarded to the top management
regarding the bill payments as CEB loyalty card system, payment collection through meter readers,
customer care app for mobile phones, etc.

4.2 Disconnection Programme

Mr. Vithanage described about the electricity disconnection programme. He said the respective
Area Engineer is responsible for the disconnection programme in his area. According to him, the
system of generating disconnection notices are fully automated, but the Area Engineer can filter
the accounts which need to be disconnected according to his requirements.

Previous month Issue the Red Disconnect the

bill arrears > Red Notice print Notice with next supply after 14
500/- moth bill days

Collect the
arrears and the Reconnection
processing fees

Chart 4.1 Disconnection Programme Process

Disconnection programme is carried by contractors in NCP. So there is an additional cost to CEB
for that payments, hence all the customers who got the supply disconnected has to pay a
processing charge of 1,250/- + NBT as a penalty. According to Mr. Vithanage, for an arrears of
1,000/- disconnection, a customer has to pay 2,250/- + NBT in order to get the reconnection.
Also Mr. Vithanage mentioned that, due to the time consumed to open the account after a new
connection, a customer may receive a high electricity bill as the first bill. If it is not paid soon, a red
notice would be issued and then the supply can be disconnected as well, said Mr. Vithanage.

4.3 Revenue Collection Statistics

According to Mr. Vithanage, there is a repeating pattern of Energy sales in NCP and all other
provinces in the country. He says it depends on festival seasons, weather, and other unique
reasons.
 Total Energy Sales in NCP - 2017
60.00

Millions
50.00

40.00
Energy (kWh)

30.00

20.00

10.00

-
Jan feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Anuradhapura 16,489 16,130 13,598 19,089 20,731 19,375 19,147 19,175 8,264, 19,078 20,595 17,215
kekirawa 14,340 8,782, 8,325, 8,507, 9,888, 9,173, 9,450, 9,482, 7,691, 11,861 8,830, 15,984
Minneriya 11,395 13,390 17,629 17,558 20,853 21,009 20,859 21,841 15,084 19,818 16,363 579,22
Total 42,226 38,303 39,553 45,155 51,473 49,557 49,457 50,499 31,040 50,758 45,788 33,779
Average 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378

Chart 4.2 Area wise Total Energy Sales at NCP - 2017

Total Energy Sales in NCP - 2018

60.00
Millions

50.00

40.00
Energy (kWh)

30.00

20.00

10.00

-
Jan feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Anuradhapura 16,910 20,349 20,936 21,972 8,225, 16,069 20,479 19,471 8,264, 19,078 20,595 17,215
kekirawa 7,978, 1,120, 9,801, 9,860, 9,965, 9,384, 9,907, 9,874, 7,691, 11,861 8,830, 15,984
Minneriya 16,746 18,926 20,221 20,898 22,324 19,128 15,223 22,818 15,084 19,818 16,363 579,22
Total 41,635 40,395 50,959 52,731 40,515 44,582 45,610 52,164 31,040 50,758 45,788 33,779
Average 45,136 45,136 45,136 45,136 45,136 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378 44,378

Chart 4.3 Area wise Total Energy Sales at NCP - 2018

 Monthly Outstanding - Area wise 2017
1.6
1.4
Outstanding (in months)

1.2
1
Anuradhapura
0.8
Kekirawa
0.6
Minneriya
0.4
Average
0.2
0

Chart 4.4 Area wise Monthly Outstanding at NCP - 2017

Monthly Outstanding - Area wise 2018

1.6
1.4
Outstanding (in months)

1.2
1
Anuradhapura
0.8
Kekirawa
0.6
Minneriya
0.4
Average
0.2
0

Chart 4. Area wise Monthly Outstanding at NCP – 2018

It is noted that all three area have an outstanding value around 1 months, where it can be
considered as a high value. Mr. Vithanage explained saying this is due to high domestic potion in
the customer base. He said, if the payment collection could be more efficient, this figure could
bring down to 0.5 or even lesser.
He also said CEB could always bring down the disconnection value from 1,000/- to lesser value to
increase the number of disconnection per month, but which would ultimately decrease the
customer satisfaction and might create more problems than the revenue collection.
5. System Losses
Losses can be defined as the balance between the import and export in a power system. In CEB,
the main method of importing electricity is through the Transmission section.
i.e. Export + losses = import
Mr. VC Chandradasa, the Area Engineer of Minneriya talked about the system losses and the
reasons for those losses in his perspective. In his view the system losses are causing significant
impact to the revenue of the CEB. In his estimation, the total system loss of energy in NCP is around
12% total energy imported, which is significantly large amount.
According to Mr. Chandradasa, in NCP the total input energy is gained through the Transmission
division and through embedded power generation (through mini hydro power plants and Solar
PV).

5.1 Reasons for losses

Also he mentioned that there is a considerable gap between unaccounted energy usages from the
network, which is also accounted as losses. The following are the reasons pointed by Mr.
Chandradasa as the causes for the energy loss of the system.
1. Street Lights: As per Mr. Chandradasa, there is no proper law in Sri Lanka regarding
Street Lights. The provincial and urban councils are responsible for the installation and
maintenance of those and according to Mr. Chandradasa, there is no payment made for
their electricity usage. He says that is a huge revenue loss to the CEB.
2. Losses from the network: Mr. Chandradasa mentioned that in NCP, the majority of the
LV network is bare Aluminum conductors and all the HV network is bare Aluminum
Conductors too. With large line lengths, due to high resistance and inductance, there is an
energy loss says Mr. Chandradasa.
3. Earth Leakage: He further said mainly from LV network there can be leakage to ground
through way leaves, stay wires, broken insulators etc. He also said that due high vegetation
growth in the NCP, earth leakage is considerably higher than other provinces.
4. Metering errors: According to Mr. Chandradasa, most of the domestic meters are very
old. Hence they could be erroneous and misleading. He said CEB has to change the old
meters regularly to minimize the meter losses and also have to test the meters frequently.
Finally Mr. Chandradasa mentioned with proper solutions, the NCP branch of CEB is targeting to
achieve 2% gain in the losses in next 5 years by implementing proper way leaves removal
programme, meter changing programme and converting bare Aluminum conductors to bundle
conducts.
He also highlighted that with a proper Street Light management system, CEB could achieve better
efficiency targets while minimizing unaccounted losses.
6. Expenditure in NCP branch of CEB
In order to gather the information of the expenditure of the NCP branch of CEB, Mr. Kumara, the
Deputy General Manager was contacted.

6.1 Cost Relevant to Revenue Collection

According to the DGM (NCP) of CEB, there are several cost components relevant to the operations
in NCP. New line constructions, Way leave clearance, System rehabilitation, System maintenance
and Remuneration of revenue collection staff are major cost components that can be identified
says Mr. Kumara. In his view, he mentioned the following as the composition of the total cost
bared by the NCP branch of CEB.

1. New line construction: New HT and LT lines should be constructed in order to give electricity
to new customers.
2. Way leave clearance: The vegetation along existing lines should be cleared in order to
reduce system breakdowns
3. System rehabilitation: The existing system should be rehabilitated in order to cater the
electricity demand growth.
4. System maintenance: The existing system should be properly maintained to give
uninterrupted electricity supply.
5. Remuneration of the staff: The salaries and other benefits of staff that do the above jobs
also should be accounted.
6. Opportunity cost of Solar PV: The grid connected rooftop Solar PV systems reduces the
electricity bill of high-end consumers which reduces the CEB’s revenue position.
7. Other costs: The costs which cannot categorized under any of the above is considered as
other costs.

According to the DGM (NCP), the major cost component is the new line constructions and the
least is the remunerations for the employees.

Case Questions
1. Can the NCP branch of CEB become profitable or breakeven by improving their methods and
processes? Explain with justifications.
2. According to Mr. Vithanage, CEB is currently using negative reinforcement methods to collect
revenue. What would be the challenges if CEB plans to change from negative reinforcement to
positive reinforcement methods?
3. Propose a strategic plan to improve the electricity supply quality by improving the breakdown
management system. How that would effect to reduce the network losses? Explain
4. What do you identify as the most significant issue in the NCP branch of CEB? How do you
propose to overcome that issue?

References
1. Area Engineer’s Manual, CEB
2. Official Website of CEB, www.ceb.lk
3. Statistic Digest of CEB (extract from the Annual Reports) 2017 and 2018
4. Management Reports of NCP, CEB of 2017 and 2018
5. Interviews and discussion made with executive officers in CEB
Group Members

Name of the Student MBA Reg. No

Mr Kasthurirathne WAIS (Team Leader) RJT/MBA/2017/35
Ms Perera AHUS RJT/MBA/2017/13
Ms Anjala AK RJT/MBA/2017/22
Mr Hettiarachchi BP RJT/MBA/2017/32
Ms Hettige DNK RJT/MBA/2017/33
Mr Jenen SS RJT/MBA/2017/34
Mr Munasinghe N RJT/MBA/2017/36
Mr Priyadarshana PS RJT/MBA/2017/40
Mr Rangana MAM RJT/MBA/2017/43
Ms Samarasinghe KTAR RJT/MBA/2017/44
Mr Senavirathna UNB RJT/MBA/2017/45
Mr Sumathirathna RHJR RJT/MBA/2017/48
Ms Thilakarathne EMMP RJT/MBA/2017/49
Ms Sangeetha N RJT/MBA/2017/52
Mr Rambukwella HMCHK RJT/MBA/2017/60
Ms Medonsa MYD RJT/MBA/2017/61
Ms Rajakaruna RMJJK RJT/MBA/2017/66
Ms Gangodawila DA RJT/MBA/2017/69
Mr Polgampola SC RJT/MBA/2017/70
Ms J.Happy Queeninista RJT/MBA/2016/35
Mr Senarathna BMRIC RJT/MBA/2016/65
Mr Rathnayake RMTN RJT/MBA/2016/61
Mr. Dissanayake DSR RJT/MBA/2017/67
Ms WMSR Padiwita RJT/MBA/2016/50
 Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Mihinthale

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

MBA 2114 - Strategic Management

Group Assignment Case Study:

“A Systematic Review of the

Ceylon Electricity Board, North Central Province“