Sri Lanka’s Energy Generation Plan Raises Eyebrows
Planning and implementation are key issues of generation plans
by Ifham Nizam
Preeni Witanage, Thilak Siyabalapitiya and Jayantha Wijesinghe
Sri Lanka’s electricity sector faces a crisis situation due to the lack of proper planning and implementation of the Long term generation expansion plan (LTGP), the electricity generation plan, renowned energy expert Dr Thilak Siyabalapitiya, stressed.
He compared the 2018-2037 LCLTGEP with the 2015-2034 plan and said, the energy sector regulator Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka(PUCSL) and the state utility Ceylon Electricity Board(CEB) are two independent bodies and hence there is no opportunity to blame the government for various decisions.
He added: “In 2015 September, I said, that a severe situation is building up. Everybody was happy and there was no problem at all. However, everybody knows in the Commission as well as in the CEB that a severe situation was building up and there was no sense of urgency shown by the CEB or by the Government to get the problem resolved.
Dr. Siyabalapitiya also said: “So I did say it looks like the drama of 1995 – 2005 is being repeated again, which finally results in not renewable but Oil Oil and more Oil.”
He was speaking at the recent public consultation on LTGP organised by the PUCSL to get the comments, views and proposals from the public on the 20 year LTGP proposal of CEB. The PUCSL said it will announce the decision on the proposed plan on 20th July 2017.
Dr. Siyabalapitiya said “this (planning) means long term solutions first, a decision for the shorter term second, energy efficiency and demand responds, etc are the third and finally the decisions on emergency power once we have made the first three decisions. Ofcourse, what we are doing now is the reverse order. Decisions for the long term have been cancelled and we are trying to re-invent the wheel and regenerated new projects. As of now, practically all large projects for the long term are being cancelled,” he added.
“So the country is slowly drifting towards using more diesel. We have started on that trend in 2016 and based on the PUCSL’s own information, during the first four months of this year, 42 per cent of electricity came from oil. So compared with the long term generation expansion plan of 2006, we have already spent 160 million dollars extra for diesel and various types of oil,”
“Tell us, when will the Commission stand-up to Government pressure (to build more diesel power plants), and order the CEB not to build any more diesel power plants? Dr. Siyabalapitiya questioned.
“When will Sri Lanka reach the 10% limit on diesel/fuel oil in the national policy?
In Sri Lanka the electricity sector is struggling with the implementation of their own plans and as a result the country spends millions and millions to buy electricity from private sector power producers. The Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat’s Director Benefits, Preeni Withanage thinks that identifying key milestones for each project in the planning stage is lacking in even the newly submitted power generation plan 2017-2037.
“This is an international document. This is a very handy document for our investor,” she said.
She added : “ This is a 20 year plan. Even though this is for 20 years, our final objective is to at least to achieve the objectives of the four to six years projects and thereby I would like to propose to identify key tasks and time targets for the projects at the time of planning and annex it into the plan as well, so that it will be handy for investors who concentrate on the near term. Having a 20 year plan is useless if you cannot achieve the objectives of the short term, four-six years.”
She pointed out that the LCLTGEP of the CEB lacks the benefit analysis, including other value added benefits to the state at the planning stage of power plants.
“This is something that I find lacking in this document, including other value added benefits to the state at the planning stage. Have you considered the commercial value? There may be some energy source that may give rise to the economic benefits to the country. There will be emerging industries in the future and there will be lots of employment generation. Social cost adds alot to the economy.”
Sri Lanka’s history gives plenty of evidence on the problems in power generation. In 1996, Sri Lanka experienced one of the worst blackouts with eight-hour power cuts and restrictions imposed on the use of electricity for non-essential purposes.
Between 1996-2000 the problem persisted, though not to the same degree. Then again in 2001 and 2002, shortages emerged pushing the country once again into a power crisis. Even in recent past Sri Lanka faced a blackout in September 2015 and February and March 2016 due to the failure of the first Coal fired power plant in Norochcholai.
Relying on one source of energy has brought the Indian Ocean Nation into this situation.
“We spent 2.8 trillion rupees just to generate demand based energy and about 1 trillion is spent on coal as well as Rs. 580,600 million spent for diesel excluding private purchases that we made,” Jayantha Wijesinghe from Rainforest Protectors of Sri Lanka said.
“We have the impression that it is only the developed countries that develop renewable energy, but that is not the case. Countries such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uruguay and even India is developing renewable energy in a massive way. Of course Sri Lanka too can do that.
“Also, we have to think about depending on the largest coal power plant like Norochcholai. We have 900 MW coming from that plant, but any breakdown would interrupt the power supply in the country.”Wijesinghe said.
The generation plan 2018-2037 has added 2700MW of Coal power into the electricity generation system in the 20 year run.
