Govt. officials should support RE sector
As with all sectors in the country, Renewable Energy (RE) is also facing an acute crisis without being paid for its product for the past 10 months and related policies being decided by those who are ignorant of the sector situation.
The power and energy crises are looming large, but the authorities and officials related to solving it is not considering the RE sector for a lasting solution, starting with being paid by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and declaring a feasible tariff, industry officials lament.
They accuse officials in the government without knowledge or foresight, of making policies for the RE sector, and messing up the situation further. So much so that RE developers are not given a seat on the Power Ministry Tariff Committees.
“We have been requesting a seat in the tariff committees so that an economically feasible and implementable tariff could be formulated. Also, because we are aware of the ground situation better, it is imperative that we also participate in the decision-making. Despite our request, this has not been considered by the tariff committee chairmen in different tariff committees, such as the mini hydro, wind power, ground-mounted solar, and rooftop solar tariff committees,” Prabath Wickramasinghe, Executive Committee Member and Past President of the Small Hydro Power Developers Association, told the Business Times on Thursday.
All RE developers are posing the question as to how these policies and tariffs are formulated and decided upon without industry input.
“Government officials related to RE participated in the tariff committees. But our presentations weren’t allowed before the committees and details were not considered properly,” Warna Dahanayake, Secretary Small Hydro Power Association told the Business Times on Thursday.
He added the non-conventional renewable energy tariff committee considered 16 per cent as the debt interest rate but this is a rate that is not available in the market now. “Also, the plant load factor is 36 per cent in all the mini-hydro projects running currently. We pointed out that in the balance projects to be considered in the future the plant load factor will not be close to 36 per cent. We requested them to consider it at 35 per cent but they have increased it to 40 per cent.”
He added that it is important for the government to give low-cost funding through donor agencies for the RE sector for its sustenance.
The CEB is losing more by not paying for RE, industry officials say.
The CEB current mix includes hydro, wind, thermal, and coal sufficient to supply the energy demand. “But they do not have USD to buy oil and coal which is an expensive source of energy. The obvious solution should be Renewable Energy,” Solar Industries Association Secretary Lakmal Fernando told journalists at a media briefing on Thursday. Solar, wind, small hydro, and biomass are available in abundance in the country and there is no need for USD to import fuel for these plants, he said.
He further added a completely unjustifiable feeding tariff was proposed by the tariff committee appointed by the Ministry of Power to revise the rooftop tariff.
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