Playing games with energy
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Just as Aldoris drove into the lane with his food-filled tuk—tuk accompanied by the usual music, the trio walked towards the gate and warmly greeted him.The trio’s regular conversations, sometimes ‘hot’ sometimes ‘cold’, with Aldoris was a welcome feature on an otherwise quiet morning in the household.
“Ah…….Aldoris, wessata ahuwuna-neda (Ah… Aldoris got caught to the rain, eh),” asked Kussi Amma Sera. “Ow, mae davas wala godak wahinawa ne, ekai mata eeiyae enna beri wune (Yes, it has been raining heavily these days and I couldn’t come yesterday),” he replied.
“Samahara-wita baladaarin mae davas wala light kapanne neththe wahina hinda wenna athi (Maybe the authorities are not cutting power these days because of the rain),” noted Serapina. Indeed, there have been no power cuts in the household in the past few days.
“Wessa mae davas wala ashirwadayak. Eth mama kanassallata pathwenawa uda rata inna kattiya gena hithanakota, mokada egollange geval gasa-gena yanawa-ne (Rain is a blessing these days. However, I worry about the people living on hills whose houses tend to get washed away during these times),” added a worried Mabel Rasthiyadu.
As they continued their conversation on this Thursday morning, I walked towards the office room but was stopped in my tracks by the ringing of the phone. It was ‘Koththamalli’ Fernando, the ‘Kokatath Thailaya’ (oil for many ailments) expert who has a remedy for any issue, and whom I hadn’t spoken to in a long while.
“I say… I have been reading about the issues faced by renewable energy producers. Why can’t the government solve their problems,” he asked, after the usual warm greeting.
“How? Well the government needs to pay them. That’s the simple solution, and at this point the authorities are acutely short of funds,” I said.
As a temporary solution, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has been able to reduce or completely do away with the power cuts because of incessant rain particularly in the catchment areas where power stations are located. More rain in these areas means the CEB can generate more hydro-power which has been the case in the past few days. Although the daily power cuts’ schedule is announced every day, it is not activated due to sufficient rain to power the hydropower plants.
Koththamalli had another suggestion. “Why don’t we have a scheme of rainwater harvesting in households to capture the rain and preserve it for use instead of allowing it to run into the sea?” he asked.
“Yes… that’s a good idea but our authorities would wake up to such ideas only if a crisis occurs,” I said, adding that rainwater harvesting has been suggested for a long time but successive governments have failed to pronounce any policy to capture rainwater.
In some countries, rainwater harvesting is done through roof-like surfaces and redirected to a tank, cistern or deep pit. In some villages in Sri Lanka, this is happening but on a very small scale. Furthermore, abandoned paddy lands can be transformed into rain catchment areas with proper facilities for storage and the required state policy.
However, for today’s discussion, I was intrigued by Koththamalli’s concern about problems faced by renewable energy producers and began digging to find out what ails this vital sector.
Electricity in Sri Lanka is generated through three primary sources: thermal power (which includes coal and fuel oil); hydropower; and other non-conventional renewable energy sources (solar power and wind power). Hydropower was once the primary source. But after consumption increased rapidly due to economic development and commercial and industrial expansion, the demand grew making it woefully inadequate to depend on hydropower alone. Erratic weather patterns – high intensity rain during wet seasons which resulted in more rain draining to the sea instead of filling up aquifers – and long spells of drought have also caused problems for sufficient hydropower generation.
Sri Lanka is fast-tracking plans for more renewable energy generation with a 70 per cent (renewable energy) and 30 per cent (other sources including thermal and coal power) mix by the year 2030. However, the way the country’s planners and policymakers are behaving at the moment, Sri Lanka is far off target from these bold proposals.
The current power generation policies in fact are working in reverse to the energy targets in 2030. For example, renewable energy producers have been confronted by two major problems; delayed payments from the CEB for the use of renewable energy and perceived blocking of new energy projects by the authorities at a time when more of this should be encouraged.
For the past 10 months, renewable energy producers have not been paid by the authorities for the use of power generated by these small units. The CEB owes billions of rupees – as much as Rs. 35 billion – to these small producers and the government has been struggling to raise finances to pay not only renewable energy producers but also contractors of state projects; another colossal amount of dues.
The authorities have also been blocking new proposals from renewable energy producers, keeping them on the back-burner for some strange reason apart from corrupt elements at play. The authorities have been accused of promoting energy purchased from private thermal power (using fuel) stations instead of renewable power sources, the former which results in kickbacks and financial benefits to state officials. Corruption in the power sector is rampant with various allegations being levelled at officials in the tender process, the latest one being the tender for coal. A recent tender awarded to a Dubai-based company for coal supply was cancelled after an outcry over the manner in which it was awarded and a fresh tender called.
According to Solar Industries Association (SIA) Secretary Lakmal Fernando, as stated in a recent Business Times report, solar energy as a primary source of energy can be developed at a speedy pace if the correct policies are in place. He says the electricity supply to the grid can remain relatively stable compared to a single system breaking down such as the Norochcholai power plant, if more solar power is encouraged.
According to official data, up to 40,000 households have roof-mounted solar systems and the SIA hopes it could garner the necessary support to connect 300,000 new households every year with a 3 kilowatt (kW) system.
Sri Lanka has over 6.5 million electricity customers whereas only 40,000 of them have so far installed rooftop solar systems. “If Sri Lanka can convert around 20 per cent of these customers, which is a million customers, with rooftop solar systems, installing a 3 kW system per location, 3,000 megawatts (3 gigawatts) of energy can be added to the national grid,” one industry official said.
As I wound up by column, Kussi Amma Sera walked into the room with a second mug of tea saying, “Sir, adath wahinnai yanne (Sir, it’s going to rain today too).”
I nodded wondering when we would transform this
rain and an abundance of sunlight into preserving water and generating solar power, providing long – term solutions to one of Sri Lanka’s crucial needs.
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