Mackwoods to open electric vehicle charging stations
Mackwoods Energy PLC (MEP) is aiming to set up electric vehicle charging stations across the country, officials said.
“Currently we’re doing some market studies on this. Most probably this year we’ll roll it out,” Arjuna Yatawara, MEP Managing Director told the Business Times. He said they plan to set up roadside charging stations. “We’ll also be discussing with some petrol stations to build charging stations,” he said.
While this will initially be a pilot project, he said that already this concept has widespread interest. “The most obvious advantage of electric car batteries is that they don’t produce the pollution associated with internal combustion engines,” Mr. Yatawara said, pointing out that another important advantage of battery-powered motors over gas-powered engines is the lower cost of the fuel – that is, electricity for electric vehicles is way cheaper than gas for the internal combustion engines.
Last year Mackwoods Energy’s hydro projects made progress, albeit slower than expected due to unforeseen delays experienced as a result of the long chain of approval processes, transmission line/grid availability issues and due to changes in policy and administrative procedures, Mr. Yatawara said. Pending approval of the hydro projects the company as an interim measure is proceeding under the CEB net metering scheme, as a prelude to the full implementation of the projects with grid connectivity.
“To optimally position the company for the next phase of expansion, several initiatives in the renewable energy sector as well as in the energy saving sector have been undertaken, thus distributing the risks among a wider product and service portfolio. Last year Mackwoods Energy also laid the foundation for expansion into related areas of renewable energy such as Biogas, Bio, Mass, Solar and Wind with the latter three being mainly for grid supply,” Mr. Yatawara said.
The outlook for the power and energy sector remains positive with the Sri Lankan economy expected to continue on a high growth trajectory in the country’s accelerated post-conflict development scenario, he added.
The company’s thermal power business is forecast to grow, with the launch of high capacity power generators from sourced from manufactures in UK, Singapore and China where agencies have already been secured. Expansion into new business lines, such as energy saving power distribution panels, industrial and commercial air conditioning and refrigeration and water treatment, was launched with a few test projects, and product performance is under evaluation before commercialization and several options for scaling up the power distribution panel business are currently under evaluation with a view to diversifying into complementary lines.
Mr. Yatawara added that projects currently being developed include Biogas technology to the hospitality industry, a Waste-to-Energy Project using Municipality developed include Biogas technology to the hospitality industry, a Waste-to-Energy Project using Municipality Solid Waste, a Biomass/Dendro project and a 1MW solar power plant on a land already made available in the Kalutara District.