Letters
View(s):Power blackout: CEB seems to be in the dark regarding its own shortcomings
In a news report in the Sunday Times of October 4, the President of the CEB Engineers’ Union has offered an explanation to the total blackout on September 27, saying that the blackout was caused by high voltage in the power system that led to a cascade collapse, and goes on to blame politicians for this situation.
He has also said that, “Today, the CEB has substantial generation in the system which cannot be controlled by operators, which include output from mini-hydropower stations and wind power producers.
They start, stop and change their load at their own will,” he explained. “The system operators find it difficult to maintain the power balance in the system.”
Reading the above explanation, a question that even a layman could ask is why the system did not have any protection against over-voltages that could be generated by mini-hydro or wind generators, if that was the cause for the blackout.
It is common knowledge that wind power generators could cause variations in voltage or frequency and adequate protection needs to be provided against such variations. Why blame the politicians for this lapse on the part of CEB?
On the other issue of CEB not having any control over the operation of mini-hydro and wind power plants, shouldn’t the CEB take the blame for this situation also? Isn’t this a case of poor management by CEB?
Does not the agreement that power producers enter with the CEB have any provision for the CEB to monitor and regulate the operation of these plants to match with its requirements? If this provision is absent, why blame the politicians without blaming themselves?
Browsing the web on the issue of connecting small power plants to a national grid, I came across a publication –“A Guidebook on Grid Interconnection and Islanded Operation of Mini-Grid Power Systems Up to 200 kW” by Chris Greacen, Richard Engel and Thomas Quetchenbach published jointly by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Schatz Energy Research Center in April 2013, which makes reference to the situation in Sri Lanka.
(http://www.cleanenergyministerial.org/Portals/2/pdfs/A_Guidebook_for_Minigrids-SERC_LBNL_March_2013.pdf)
In section 3 on Dispatch and utility-SPP (Small Power Producers) communication, the report gives the following material (highlighting is the writer’s):
“As renewable distributed generators come to make up a larger fraction of total resources on the grid, their intermittent and irregular power production profiles can contribute to grid instability.
Where this is demonstrated to be an issue, SPPs and the main grid operator may make provisions for dispatchability.
True dispatchability requires that information be made available to the utility regarding resource status (e.g. wind speed, rainfall, weather forecasts) and the availability of the plant.
Two-way communication is needed allowing the SPP to transmit this information to the utility and the utility to respond with instructions.
Such communication can be manual (e.g., by phone) or automated (via data acquisition systems and supervisory controls).
Automated dispatch can be expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars for a system including data acquisition and data transmission system that also mayinclude supervisory control; periodic telecommunications fees are additional to these startup costs. As a result, small SPPs are not usually dispatchable”.
“In some developing countries, day-to-day communication between SPPs and grid dispatchers is minimal.
In Sri Lanka, where some 100 SPPs, most of them mini-hydro plants, have an aggregate capacity of over 200 MW (approximately 10% of the entire grid’s peak demand), there is no established system or protocol for real-time communication with the utility.
However, given the economic and resource management advantages of dispatchability, the long-term trend appears to be in favour of requiring dispatchable operation of SPPs.
Modern telecommunications tools, including widespread mobile telephone coverage and less expensive data acquisition systems, may enable this move towards better dynamic balancing of supply and demand and integration of decentralized generating assets”.
It is noteworthy that the authors of this publication have found only Sri Lanka’s utilities defaulting in not having a communication link with SPPs.
They have identified this CEB’s shortcoming as early as 2013. But, CEB has not taken any steps to establish a communication link with the SPPs. In the absence of such a communication link, naturally the SPPs have no alternative than to “start, stop and change the load at their own will”.
Why didn’t CEB stop this procedure all this time if it is something undesirable? It would not have been a difficult task to establish at least a manual communication link with SPPs.
As mentioned in the above report, establishing a communication link is necessary for better dynamic balancing of supply and demand.
The readers must be thankful to the President of CEB Engineers’ Union for admitting their own fault of not having any control over the operation of small power plants for which they have to take the blame themselves. Hope CEB will take remedial measures at least now.
Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri
Nawala
A Jak tree appeals
I’m running out of time!
I spent my whole life in a private land in Kundasale. My landlord looked after me well and I in return gifted him with a continuous flow of fruits.
I was old when he wanted a construct a house in the land, but he built it without harming me, out of love and respect for me, although I was quite close to the house. Later, as my strength weakened I experienced a natural death.
I was afraid that I might fall onto his house and fortunately he also sensed it and was planning a proper burial for me.
With this in mind, he contacted the Grama Niladhari of the area, who visited me and certified my death. He instructed my landlord to report my death to the Agricultural Instructor too.
She too visited and inspected me and the insects trying to build a nest in my decaying body and advised my landlord as to how to get rid of these parasites as they could endanger other living plants.
She too signed the form giving approval for a burial for me. My landlord took the form back to the Grama Niladhari who said that that it will now be sent to the Provincial Authority for their certification saying that it is just a formality.
This happened two months ago but the permit has still not appeared. Will I be able to have a respectable funeral or will I lose even the remaining little strength to stand and fall onto his house?
If that happens, I wonder whether the Provincial Council will pay for the damage? After all, this is the era of good governance.
R.N.A. de Silva
Via email
Mosquitoes will be the problem
I enjoyed last month’s article ‘A Bridge Too Far’ (Monthly Musings by Citizen Silva).
Quite apart from Indian monkeys crossing a trans-Palk Strait bridge, however, it is the mosquitoes from India that we need to worry about.
While malaria has now been eradicated in Sri Lanka, the disease is common in Tamilnadu – while Dengue, from recent reports, is rife all over in India.
Every truck carrying Bombay onions and potatoes coming across a bridge has the potential to bring over disease-carrying mosquitoes from India to Sri Lanka.
More than Hanuman’s hordes it will be hordes of disease-carrying mosquitoes from India that will be the problem!
Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha
Via email
Open letter to Minister Ranawake
Walking path along Kesbewa lake at a standstill
We at Kesbewa have a mega problem and remedial action is being delayed day by day. Every appeal/reminder has been ignored.
A project to construct a walking strip around Kesbewa Lake was started in 2014, with a lot of pomp and pageantry.
Salvinia in the Lake and trees and shrubs around the lake were cleared, fenced and a short wall of 2ft in height and 20-30 feet in length was built at a considerable expenditure (Rs. 50 Lakhs).However the work has stopped since January this year.
This is a waste of public funds.
We don’t need an elaborate walking path with WiFi etc. as is the case in Diyawanna or Boralesgamuwa. What we need is a five feet wide, solid sandy path without water clogging, for senior people to use for daily walks.
This “poor man’s walking strip” won’t cost much and it would satisfy our needs initially. When more funds are available it could be developed into an attractive lake with lighting and a boat service too maybe.
It could be a tourist attraction.
This is an appeal on behalf of senior citizens to our new minister of Megapolis Development, the man who solved many problems at the CEB, to get this project completed quickly.
Sumith de Silva
Kesbewa