Editorial

This Government’s flip-flopping on energy policy–particularly when it comes to coal power–is nothing short of legendary. While the rest of the world embraces clean electricity, the administration is now backing Ceylon Electricity Board-led efforts to introduce more coal power plants, despite the bitter experience of the high-polluting Lakvijaya at Norochcholai.

This reversal on coal is mindboggling. One year after assuming power, the Government cancelled long-overdue plans for an India-funded coal power plant in Sampur. Chandima Weerakkody, the then Minister of Petroleum Industries, said President Maithripala Sirisena had informed Indian Premier Narendra Modi of Sri Lanka’s decision to move towards liquefied natural gas (LNG) and to seek his support towards the endeavour.

Then, in September 2016, the Attorney General’s Department notified the Supreme Court during a hearing on an anti-coal petition filed by an NGO that the coal power plant had been ruled out. In April 2017, India agreed to assist Sri Lanka to “convert fuel-based power plants to LNG power plants” and to also set up a 50 megawatt solar power initiative in Sampur.

The push towards renewable energy seemed clear. President Sirisena’s own election manifesto had pledged to prepare the groundwork to fulfil basic energy requirements through renewable energy such as dendro power, wind power, solar power and ocean energy.

He vowed to build biomass power stations throughout the country “so that electricity consumers’ money that hitherto drained into the pockets of the coal and oil mafia will flow into the rural peasantry”. He promised to gradually remove subsidies for fossil fuel and to hand them over to obtain renewable energy technology. Was he misguided, over-enthusiastic or just winging it for the sake of the election?

Whatever it is, public message has been that of sustainable, environment-friendly energy. The manner in which it was conveyed, including at various forums, gave the impression that Sri Lanka, like many other countries, was moving away from coal. The independent energy regulator, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), echoed these sentiments by prevailing upon the CEB to produce a new Least Cost Long-Term Generation Expansion Plan 2018-2037 that did not include coal power plants.

In July 2017, the PUCSL approved this alternate plan (the original one had included coal) saying it was in line with Government policy of not building more coal power plants in the near future. It also said the President had directed the CEB to target 70 percent of power generation to be from renewables by 2030. The energy mix was, therefore, to be major and mini hydro, solar, wind, biomass, natural gas, furnace oil and gas turbine power.

There also emerged multiple reports of environmental issues caused by the Chinese-built plant in Norochcholai; problems that are preventing the relevant authorities from renewing its environmental protection licence. Last year, a petition signed by 71 Lakvijaya employees was sent to authorities. They complained that the health of operation and maintenance staff was seriously compromised by dust and ash. This gave some impetus to the anti-coal lobby.

There are many more concerns, recorded over the years by campaigners and activists. For instance, the plant has no ‘scheduled waste management licence’ as required by law for a facility that generates hazardous matter. Coal dust and fly ash has been blowing towards villages. And there were no protections against mercury pollution.

But the CEB is seething. It counters that coal is the single largest source of electricity generation in the world, providing 40% of power even in 2016. Global Coal consumption increased by 64% from 2000 to 2014 because of the unparalleled economic advantages it offers.
Led by its engineers, the CEB alleges that an “LNG mafia” is in control of the PUCSL. The engineers’ union is lobbying for the removal of the independent regulator’s director general saying he was batting, so as to speak for powerful groups who stood to benefit from LNG and renewable energy.

One engineer once warned that, “Unless we are very careful now, unknowingly, we may be creating an LNG demon, which would have enough money at hand even to decide who our future political leaders are.”

It cannot be denied that there are interest groups, including many fired by lucrative financial gains, behind the anti-coal lobby. But the same argument applies to the pro-coal lobby. And as the Sunday Times observed in a news article last week highlighting the many hazards of the Norochcholai coal power plant, it is not immediately clear why one “mafia” would be better than the other.

The President is now singing a different tune on coal. He has denied ever being opposed to future coal power plants and instructed the PUCSL–which, ironically, is the “independent” regulator–to approve the CEB’s original Long Term Generation Plan which includes coal. And the CEB is playing tough on environmental concerns. It has threatened to shut down Lakvijaya if its environmental protection licence is not renewed.

This kind of posturing is unacceptable and amounts to holding an entire country to ransom. Coal is the world’s filthiest fuel. And while the Government now says it wishes to introduce “high efficient coal power technologies”, this will come at a cost that could cancel out the price benefit the CEB insists coal power generation brings.

The Economist, in a special report published in March 2018, said that even China has been moderating its demands for coal and oil, slowing the rise in electricity consumption, deploying gas and renewable energies and arresting the growth of carbon-dioxide emissions. While it remains the world’s biggest importer of fossil fuels, its experience with filthy air and its concerns about over-dependence on imported oil have made it keener to harvest more of its own wind and sunlight, the magazine observes.

Countries that are flogging coal power plants to Sri Lanka have stopped building them at home.