Nagging power crises
View(s):For years, Sri Lanka has faced a power crisis during seasonal droughts which have extended to other months too due to climate change and global warming.
Local water authorities have urged Sri Lankans to use water sparingly as reservoirs are drying up and power generation resources are getting depleted.
In a drought, the country has two problems – a water shortage and a power crisis. On both fronts, the Government’s warnings appear to be weak and timid and not raising enough of a scare amongst the people. The media on its own is focusing attention on these issues, but not enough.
Both Power and Energy Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera have strenuously denied that the Government will impose power cuts, the latter’s comments directed particularly at business and industry.
However water authorities have separately said limited water cuts are being implemented as the water levels in the reservoir that feed the capital and other major cities with piped water are fast receding.
It would be useful for the authorities to issue a daily report on the water levels of the key reservoirs for the benefit of the public as an awareness measure and warning to conserve and not waste water.
No one wants to experience the severe power cuts enforced when Anuruddha Ratwatte was Power and Energy Minister in the late 1990s. At the time many householders purchased small solar power units and emergency lights.
Today, the energy crisis is temporarily solved by resorting to more expensive thermal plants using imported fuel. The percentage of hydro power (generated through water) today is less than 50 per cent of the total demand compared to 100 per cent some decades back. Electricity bills have gone up tremendously and will increase further in the next few months when the usage of thermal power by a household increases in the next few months. Your eyes will pop out when the electricity bill with more ‘zeroes’ arrives at your doorstep, unless there is a conservation drive at home, and nationally.
On another front, just as Sri Lanka is struggling with a twin crisis of a scarcity of rain water and power from hydro power plants, the authorities are turning away proposals to generate thousands of megawatts of power through solar and wind power resources. Official reason: The national grid has exceeded its capacity and is also unstable to accommodate excess power, according to a report in the Business Times.
Thus here is a situation, rather peculiar indeed, where private sector proposals to generate a quantity of power which is almost 800 times more than the current installed capacity has been rejected because of over-capacity at the national grid. The offers have the potential to raise 20,000 MW (wind power) and 4,000 MW (solar power). The totally installed capacity today of all sources of energy (hydro, thermal and others) is 3,400 MW.
Understandably hydro power resources, the country’s main power source for decades, are running out of steam and alternatives need to come into place. The quick-fix option has been thermal and other fuel-based power. Coal power is another option but Sri Lanka’s foray into this energy source has been anything but successful. The coal power plant at Norochcholai in Kalpitiya has broken down more times that in operation.
Mini hydro plants, wind, solar power and biomass are the recommended solutions but these have provided less than 10 per cent of Sri Lanka’s requirements. Considering the latest decision to reject new applications from wind and solar power producers which has the potential to increase locally-generated power by 800 per cent, one wonders whether there is pragmatism in the policy-making arena.
While most of these wind and solar power offers are to connect to the national grid, why can’t the Government also initiate a programme to light up villages through small wind and solar power projects offering attractive incentives as a start-up? On the other hand, if these incentives and programmes are already in place, what is hindering their progress?
Year after year droughts are worsening and the levels are falling as climate change and global warming takes its toll. Drought is also affecting Sri Lankan main agriculture crops with plantation crops like tea, rubber and coconut having added problems of fertilizer.
The net metering concept in gaining ground where private producers including hotels are connecting to the grid and selling any excess power they generate from renewable energy sources. There was a time when reasonably-priced solar power units were sold to farmers and others under a World Bank-Shell initiative which saw thousands of units being sold.
In recent times, there has been a flurry of activity by new companies selling expensive solar power units which are beyond the reach of the average wage earner. Sales seem to be picking up but at over Rs. 500,000 a unit, it is still beyond the reach of average Sri Lankans.
Solar power is the easiest source of energy compared to wind which can only be generated in some areas. Cheaper solar power units that fits the purse of an average worker is the way forward and this could be done by providing incentives to local industry to produce these units which are imported. Tax concessions could also be granted for start-up firms.
If not already done, the Government needs to appoint a high-powered committee to examine all these issues and recommend easy and simple ways of averting a power crisis and depleting water resources.