Minister Visits Ante Leco Factory
“While observing the Ante LECO factory, we realized that if the meter is so smart, life must be smarter. This brief goal is given to us by His Excellency, President Gotabaya ,” Power and Energy Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said.
Alhapperuma also said that as a country, Sri Lanka is dreaming of a friendly nation. “We must be able to dream, to pursue, and to make those dreams come true. In doing so, we face many social and economic challenges. On the national journey towards the vision of prosperity, LECO, a sister company of the Ministry of Power, has been entrusted with the responsibility of pioneering,” he said when he visited factory yesterday to inspect the current condition of the Ante Leco Suhuru Manu factory in Bandaragama.
Ante LECO Metering Company (Pvt) Ltd. is a subsidiary of LECO, where 70 per cent of the shares are owned by LECO and 30% by Ante Meter Company Ltd. of China. This is the only Energy Meter Manufacturing Company here and is committed to supply the total requirement of house hold energy meters to the Ceylon Electricity Board and LECO -Lanka Electricity Company..
Since 2018 January, company extended its manufacturing facility to produce high quality smart meters for the market here. This smart meter is tested and certified at KEMA Laboratory, Nederland for complete type testing according to IEC 62052-11 and IEC 62053-21.
Alhaperuma said LECO has a unique identity and identity within government agencies. “As the head of the Electricity family, I am very happy about that. As a sector, our biggest challenge is to move this country forward as a country that does not face an energy crisis. It has been almost three decades since the smart meter that was presented to the world in 1977 came to Sri Lanka. The world is moving fast. But now we have embarked on a new journey,” he added.
He said that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has opened this at a time when there was a terrible terrorist outfit. “Today we should express our gratitude to him for that. We can introduce this Suhuru meter factory as one of the turning points in the journey towards a friendly Sri Lanka. As a government, we seek to create a Sri Lanka free of fossil fuels as well as energy crisis through the subjective concepts of wind, water and sun in this country. That is our ultimate goal.”
Minister also stressed that the technical challenge of storing energy generated from renewable sources will be handed over to LECO at this time to achieve that goal.
This institute was established in 2008 on a concept of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa as a solution to the massive electricity meter crisis here. The company first started producing electro mechanical meters in 2008. Then in 2014 the company took it one step further and started manufacturing electronic gauges. To take this step further, in 2017 the company was transformed into a smart meter factory.
This enabled CEB to produce the required meters and more than 40% of the total meter production process began to take place in the country. By the year 2021, the company aims to complete the entire gauge manufacturing process in the country and thereby export our products to foreign countries, becoming a competitive international gauge manufacturer. Wasantha Perera, Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy, Athula de Silva, Attorney-at-Law, Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board, Dr. Narendra de Silva, General Manager, Ceylon Electricity Board and Nalinda Illangakoon, Deputy Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board were also present at the occasion.
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