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by L. R. L. Perera

At least now the IESL has said it. We refer to the interview by Douglas Ayling of the President of the IESL, Engineer BRO Fernando, published in the DN recently.

However, it was only two weeks before that the same IESL President along with Energy Consultant Eng. (Dr) Siyambalapitiya appeared at a seminar at the OPA but did not highlight these matters.

I was happy as a past president of the IESL as well as a past president of the OPA to be in the audience of this monthly technical seminar of the OPA on the 22nd March which was sponsored by the IESL on the theme "Role of Engineers in Economic and Social Development". Power and Environment experts came together with the President of the IESL, himself a former senior electrical engineer of the CEB, the Director of the Environmental Authority and Expert Energy Consultant Engineer to the Power Authority on the same platform.

When the Director of the Environment Authority spoke after the others, and declared that the Environment Authority has cleared the upper Kotmale Project and having earlier heard the engineers' lament that the politicians and the bishop of Chilaw and the public are in their way to give us cheap electricity, it flashed in me for a moment, where would this country be had nature not geographically and geologically moulded this land and gifted us the hydro power on which we have been so dependant.

Norochcholai and the respected Bishop of Chilaw!! Norochcholai and the Government green light delay!!! These are the causes of the present crisis that were highlighted at this seminar and in fact right along. That is what the engineers put forth all the time. In fact in the DN of 30th March Ranjith Wijepala reporting under the caption "Build Norochcholai - IESL" confirms the IESL stand given at a press conference urging the Government to immediately implement the Norochcholai coal power plant.

Norochcholai then is the cause of the power crisis and the high price to the consumer much above that in all the countries in the world. The statement of the IESL president made a few days after the IESL-OPA seminar makes the best sense and reveals the somewhat true position.

First the site, then the fuel - coal or oil or LNG or dendro or nuclear and then the dependence on nature-hydro, wind, or solar and as at today the most important factor-time, how soon? These are the matters at issue.

Now that a senior electrical engineer, presently in the prestigious officer of president IESL, has admitted that it is not one but three or four we require (and I frankly feel we would require ten!) the government and the authorities can get down to solve our immediate problems and long term requirements with a positive approach.

Present crisis

The public must appreciate the attempts to overcome the present crisis made by the government and the CEB, with its wisdom rekindled seeing the almost lost battle with the Rt. Reverend Bishop and the present predicament of the country, to start up, accelerate and activate delayed installations of oil fired (not coal) power plants not situated on the coast and not requiring harbours and breakwaters and barges or arousing environment enthusiasts or religious bodies, to give us relief by May or June whether or not the rains come. We now refer to and bank on the assurance given by Eng (Dr.) Susantha Perera, Chief Engineer (Tariff) CEB and President of the CEB Engineers' Union, in his interview with Hana Ibrahim published in the Sunday Observer of 7th April.

The public should also appreciate the point put forward by the engineers that coal power generation is the cheapest or is cheaper than oil. Everybody accepts it. We must appreciate their concern to give us power cheap or cheaper than anywhere else in the world. For this coal has to be used. We will accept that too. But what if we cannot find an undisputed site on our 250 km of coast to build the necessary harbours or breakwaters or conveyors or discharge the effluent without warming the sea or destroying the fish or the coral or the fauna and flora around?

What difference, does it make if the power was generated anywhere in Sri Lanka or any other part of the world with the same oil fired into similar furnaces that will generate the same electricity from similar equipment manufactured anywhere in the industrial countries other than the cost of the imported fuel.

If there was a problem about Norochcholai why did not the CEB draw the attention of the Government firmly of a possible power crisis if the monsoons fail and advise it to leave Norochcholai alone for a future decision when governments and bishops have changed and shift the priority to some other location because, as the President IESL has now declared, it is not one but three or four that we will require.

This is where professionalism which all we engineers talk of has failed - the lack of courage to speak from the positions they hold. I frankly think that it is not three or four, but we may require a ten for the much needed industrialization and infrastructure development of this country. Even on the 22nd of March at the seminar at the OPA, IESL President and the Expert advisor was stressing on Norochcholai and Coal as the only saviour of our present crisis. However we understand, although there is no official confirmation as such, that the Government has very wisely decided to shelve Norrochcholai and think of other sites.

Immediate future

Yet this is not the solution for the present crisis nor for the immediate future. It is a solution at least for six years hence. And then comes the question of what load then. Here then is what the CEB should well advise the government as the president IESL has now said, not one but plan for three or four simultaneously. We should have enough power installed with a fraction of the hydropower added on to make up the total projected capacity at particular times and use our gifted hydro power resources as supplement when nature is kind to us.

This lesson of monsoon failure of two consecutive years should give some foresight to the expert planners of the CEB and associated departments not to give any priority to the upper Kotmale or any further large scale hydro-power projects. Coal after all appear cheaper than hydro power and is certain.

The CEB should have a more futuristic plan set for the electrification of this country for the next 30 years which any government could snatch and put into a quick implementation according to the growing demand. Our engineers drew up the Mahaweli Development spread out over a period of 30 years. The foresight of certain engineers and a determined President squeezed this into 6 years. Several friendly nations came to support the programme gifting individually the headworks and infrastructure. Why not the same formula with power generation.

I am certain our present Prime Minister and the Minister for Power can solicit this from our friendly nations and have several power stations in the Districts suitably located with the appropriate fuel. Let all know that our main standby plant when the reservoirs are not full the Kelani Tissa Power Station, is in the heart of the city. So are the other subsidiaries like Sapugaskanda. They do not use coal.

In the heart of the city of Kandy a power station is still maintained. All hospitals and most hotels have their local plants. All run on oil. I have heard them say that their local generation is cheaper than the power they get from the national grid !

We are told that the CEB had a long term plan for 15 years. That they had planned for 20 mw for 2002 in Anuradhapura. Was it in coal ? or did they find a sea coast there to locate it? Why is it that the CEB does not have a long term plan in dendro fuel which can site similar 20 mw plants distributed throughout the country and increase our depleting forest cover by dendro farming as Vidyajothi Ray Wijewardane too always advocates and reduce our dependency on imported fuels. This affinity for coal and the theory it could bring power to the consumer cheaper and the CEB stubbornness on the coal issue the CEB must admit is one cause for the present crisis.

Hydro plants

In its folly, the CEB closed down the mini hydro plants like the one that was in Blackpool and in many estates. Later it started to encourage estates and the private sector to develop mini hydro plants. Can it then be said that the CEB had no proper projections or vision of the power requirements of this country related to the country's development.

In the same way we are forced to believe that the CEB has no proper data on the mini hydro power resources of this country, the run of the river resources, the wind resources or power from waste other than ad hoc projects they will come out with when a Minister makes a suggestion. At such instances we do not blame politicians. I would apologise if I am wrong in this premise but this is a conclusion I have gathered from various engineers and professionals from the many seminars on these subjects. I would like to be enlightened with references to data on this subject.

This is further established when after wasting four long years and 500 million rupees spent on trying to establish a case for one coal power plant which was going to be the panacea for all our power problems it is now said that we will need not one but three or four. While they plan these coal powered plants to give us the cheap electricity they believe they could give us, while they sort out their problems with bishops and priests and the public, while they sort out the sites and build harbours and breakwaters and barges, can they please in between plan and get some oil powered plants to match the present and immediate future needs of the country.

These will not be a waste even after you install the three or four coal power plants. Atleast once more we can talk of selling power to India ! But make certain that this power is generated at the price it is generated anywhere else in the world and if they cannot then they must quit and not the politicians.

The development of this country does not mean the lighting and air conditioning of the elite in Colombo and the major cities, the grandiose street lighting and neon sign decorations, but providing the power to the remotest villages to uplift the standards of living of the majority of our population, taking industry to the village lighting the village roads as well the electrification of our railways and the city transport services, tourism and the hotel trade, the inevitable industrialization and the not so evident power requirements of the agricultural sector for cultivation as much as post harvest operations. This is why I say not one or three or four but we may need ten Norochcholais in the near future!

Vast area

Hydro power generation covers a vast area of rural land with mixed cultivations in the up country of Sri Lanka and also involves the destruction of agricultural plantations in the reservoir areas as well as the involvement in the development of alternative infrastructure. This itself contributes to the loss of rain as much as the destruction of forests do.

The cost of all this has to be assessed and estimated in the cost of an hydro power project. By trying to extract 150 mw from the upper Kotmale project it will destroy apart from the plantations the beautiful scenery especially the Devon Falls and St. Clairs Falls, such beautiful creations of nature. How often have I detoured to go to Nuwara Eliya from Kandy on holiday trips just to have a glimpse of these two falls.

It is because of the beauty of these falls I guess that the British during British rule selected the sites of the bungalows of the then all important Executive Engineers of the Public Works Department with a full view of these falls. The British and foreigners (now termed Tourists)_ knew to appreciate the beauty, the potentiality of this country and its people.

In this present crisis of power - I mean electrical power - I am surprised at the vision of politicians and the engineers on how confidently they rely on nature to believe that the trickling waters from all the reservoirs now collected in Randenigala can last to help them restrict the population to a 5 hour only daily power cut until the monsoon breaks in. I would have expected our Power Advisors as much as those Experts who came in with the change of government to have given more concrete advice on Emergency Power which could have been installed perhaps within the 100 Day programme of the new government rather than looking up in the sky and praying for rain, extending power cuts but illuminating the cities and roads.

Engineers openly blame the politicians for the present crisis. Judging from the statements of the president IESL and the president of the CEB Engineers' Union it is obvious that the CEB must take the blame for the present crisis, not the governments that were or are in power.

Present predicament

Meanwhile it is sad to hear that the Environment Authority and the government have approved the upper Kotmale Project for engineers to develop just a 150 mw of power. Sitting in this present predicament of two consecutive years of drought or monsoon failure and with no guarantee it would not continue or recurr, at a time when all the hydro reservoirs are down to the lowest ever, it is difficult to believe how anybody could decide to build another reservoir in the same area.

This grant from Japan will definitely be better utilized if used to install an oil powered plant perhaps of larger capacity for the same capital cost in the vicinity of the planned upper Kotmale power station or suitable location upcountry itself. We could have that capacity for certain within the next three Years. Let our friendly Japan give us upper Kotmale at a later date when they know for certain that we are assured of rain and water. No donor will want to see their gift being a waste or not properly utilized. This unfortunately is a common feature in Sri Lanka.

If engineers think that they can sell power to the consumer at Rs. 7 per unit when Norochcholai is ready in another 6 years then they are either too optimistic or fooling everybody. For that they want a coal power plant and not oil because only with the low price of coal that they can produce power at Rs. 7 per unit.

When hydro power was introduced it was said it would be very much cheaper than oil. However, what has happened today. Even hydro power is sold to the consumer at the oil generated price.

The Stanley Power Station in Kolonnawa, Colombo which then supplied all the electricity requirements of Colombo and the Western coast up to about Kalutara and perhaps to Negombo and Veyangoda area was a coal power station. Ultimately this was converted to oil firing. Why? After all the extra expenditure for coal conveyance and storage will it happen the same with Norochcholai when oil magnates lobby and some future engineers point out that oil is better than coal.

Nature's gift

The introduction of hydro power electricity which was a nature's gift to Sri Lanka was said will bring down the cost but did it happen? We would like to have a comparison of the capital cost of a hydro power project and a diesel power project and a coal power project and the life spans and depreciation of the said units when the Environmental Authority Director spoke and it enlightened me that nature has gifted the physical geography of the country to develop hydro power I began to wonder if we did not have this gift would we still be arguing with a bishop to install power.

At a certain stage of our development (was it after Polgolla) we contemplated even to offer power to India. However, with the rapid development of industry and tourism the power demand grew so high and the power that belonged to all the citizens of this country has been diverted to these new organizations thus depriving the citizens of the power which rightly belonged to them. Of course at that time the power experts never dreamt that nature could be so cruel to us at times.

It is sad to hear experts putting the blame on the rapid rural electrification and taking the power to the villages as the cause of the present power crisis. It is sad to see them now calculate power drops on long distance transmissions to the villages and attribute that to the power crisis. There is no doubt that the rural villages also have to be supplied with electricity. It could have been done with independent power stations rather than long distance transmission and disfiguring the landscapes as well but that is a decision which the CEB and engineers should have made at the time of those installations considering the remoteness of the villages.

If they had any real foresight of the power requirements of a developed industrialised Sri Lanka and the possible risk of a monsoon failure and if they knew the power they would lose in long distance transmissions, then they should have planned distant rural electrification in an alternate way and advised the politicians and the governments in power accordingly.

Hotel complexes

Similarly all big industry and industrial estates could have been served by a local power station and all the big hotel complexes should have had their own power generation which definitely could have lessoned the gravity of the crisis we are faced with today and this is a crisis which is going to recur for sometimes until even if nature comes to our help and fill the reservoirs, according to the CEB itself, not till coal power Norochcholai comes into being in the next 5 or 6 years.

It is being said by engineers that if Norochcholai is not installed in coal power our electricity rates in Sri Lanka will be highest in the world. This argument we cannot understand.

Oil powered generation whether it is here or anywhere else in the world cannot be much different. It will only be in the price of oil.

It may be argued that coal is available in plenty and it is much cheaper. Yet if the Respected Bishop of Chilaw does not agree and the environmentalists and the people still object to coal power plant and the Governments in power cannot give the green light to this project for these reasons which we must appreciate, then all that has got to be done is to adopt oil instead of coal for at least this first of many power plants in this site and if the Bishop still says 'no' to find another site for an oil powered plant closer to Colombo and/or an industrial area. No harbours and jetties and breakwaters are necessary to be designed or built.

All that is necessary is a pipeline for off shore pumping of the oil. Are all the experts and environmentalists going to say that in this 125,000 sq. miles of land and so many miles of coast we cannot find another site? It is a shame that the engineers and the bishops and environmentalists fighting over a simple site matter has held the whole country to ransom. Apart from the inconvenience and hardships it has caused to the population in general not being able to make use of their electrical installations for lighting and domestic use which they have installed the economic loss to the country is tremendous and could be no where close to the difference between coal and oil.

Oil generation

From some data I have referred coal generation is only rupees 1.80 per unit less than the present oil generation. If the CEB or any economist or politician or other is going to say that this saving will be passed down to the consumer it should be taken as nothing but a joke. When the saving in generation from the 350 MW from coal powered Norochcholai in six years time is mixed up with the rest of the installed capacity feeding the grid it will be a negligible amount per unit to the consumer. Even this I can bet will never reach the consumer. The consumer will rather have power now at an extra rupee than dream for two less in six years time.

Instead of this coal powered Norochcholai with which we are to be served with cheap power in six years time let us have an oil powered plant which will be less in capital cost and quicker installation, perhaps in four years, and rather have power at the present price.

It should only require a slight modification in the specification, if at all, to the furnace unit and do away with jetties, break waters, conveyors or barges. I am certain the good Bishop will agree.

Let the CEB plan the rest of the plants in coal, oil, LNG or nuclear in appropriate locations and give us the power cheap in 2010.

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