PFI invests in two mini hydropower projects

The Property Finance and Investments (PFI) has decided to invest in two mini hydropower generation projects this year.

According to an official of the company they would be investing around Rs. 900 million for these two projects. "This would be our third investment in the power generation sector," he said.

The company has already invested Rs. 2.1 billion for Sri Lanka's biggest shopping and commercial complex, the Kandy City Centre in Kandy.

The first mini hydropower generation project by PFI is located at Rakwana, and it generates 4 mega watts of power. Constructed with an investment of Rs 440 million and with German technical know-how, the project was funded by the DFCC bank.

The official said that the PFI invested Rs. 30 million to construct a bridge that links both side villages of the river. "This was purely one of our community development projects which brought about a new culture to the area," he said. The official said that during the construction period over 500 villagers were employed. It was estimated that they earned around Rs. 10 million during the period by way of direct and indirect employment and supply of raw material to the project.

The water for the project was taken from the Delgoda River and the engineers had made it a point that the water returns to the river after generating power. This project proves that mini hydropower generation could be done without damaging the environment and the agricultural circle of the area.

Consulting Engineer, PFI, D. S Dantanarayana said that similarly the Kotmale power generation project too could be done without damaging the environment and with local expertise. "The government should consider generating around 75 mega watts from Kotmale rather than investing on a bigger project.

If this is done the local engineers themselves could construct without foreign funding," he said. Dantanarayana recalled that all the up country tea estates used to generate their own power but this was discontinued after privatisation. "This was a big blunder," he said.

Sri Lanka should promote more private sector oriented small time power generation units to put a check on the rising electricity cost for the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the public. Sri Lanka generates around 7100 Giga watt hours (GWH)of power annually out of which 3000 GWH are generated from thermal power. From the 4100 GWH of hydropower only around 160 Mega watts are being generated by the private sector.

If the government can provide more assistance the private sector could easily add another 1150 Mega watts to the national grid.