Meeting the future electricity needs of Sri Lanka

Bertram Fernando, Former General Manager, Ceylon Electricity Board.

POWER GENERATION: Electricity is the unchallenged vehicle for development and in a country such as Sri Lanka the importance of having a reliable and affordable electricity supply cannot be overstated.

Towards this end, additions are made to the power generating system on the basis of a 'Least Cost Generation Expansion Plan' aimed at the added electricity being available at the least possible cost.

The maximum demand on the Sri Lanka power system is about 1800MW and a 'rule of thumb' often enunciated in some countries is that for such a demand, about 20-25 units of about 90MW each, distributed within the system will best ensure system stability and efficiency.

Such distributed generation will avoid system losses and also avoid the hazards associated with long and vulnerable transmission lines.

The best option for power development in Sri Lanka was the development of its hydro resources and that has now been done to the extent possible. No further viable hydro resources are available for development.

One or two available projects are reckoned to be based on unacceptable arguments and are also said to be very expensive than alternative thermal options.With an annual increase in electricity consumption of about 7-8%, generating plant has to be added to the system continuously.

Plant using heavy fuel oil and even residual fuel has been in use here for a considerable period. However Sri Lanka has been forced into the realm of thermal plant operating on auto diesel due to an impending crises that arose due to shortage of power generating plant.

The operation of the plant using light diesel is now costing the country enormous amounts of foreign exchange and costs of electricity has sky rocketed.

In short all budgets have fallen apart. Sri Lanka also remains tied up to incur considerable foreign exchange in the operation of the already installed plant operating on light diesel.

It follows that further addition of diesel plant ,if any, should be those operating on heavy diesel or residual fuel, the price of heavy diesel and residual fuel being a fraction of the cost of light diesel. It is predicted to remain as such for decades years to come.

It is certain that all fuels will become costlier with time. Sri Lanka has considered coal plant for a long time and steps are now being taken towards the construction of this plant but it has to be borne in mind that coal will also become costlier with time and the present predicament we now have with fuel oils will soon appear in the coal scenario.

This brings to focus the dire need to have power generation using indigenous resources.

There is a dendro lobby which has advocated growing certain identified species of wood in fuel wood plantations. They have shown that the benefits would be fully in keeping with the stated development goals of Sri Lanka of providing a livelihood for segments of the poorest of the rural poor.

Much is being said about generating power with wind energy.

Large blocks of wind power are being added to the power systems of some of the developing countries.

We are aware that the addition of generating plant to our power system is done on the basis of a 'Least Cost Generation Expansion Plan' which is a 20 year rolling plan updated annually.

It is hoped that the Plan will keep in step with the latest developments and aim at avoiding foreign exchange commitments which may be beyond the capacity of Sri Lanka to bear.